Kumasi, July 15, GNA - Mrs. Georgina Oppong, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Council of Labour, has stated categorically that even though the new labour law does not permit strike actions, it is still not a threat to resolution of workers disputes. She said this is because numerous mechanisms and avenues have been instituted into the law, including arbitration and the Labour Commission, which could still be exploited for the amicable resolution of disputes.

Mrs. Oppong made the statement in Kumasi on Friday when she addressed the opening session of a day's seminar on promoting the understanding of the new Labour Act, organised by the Ashanti Regional Council of Labour for its executive members.

The seminar was sponsored under the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC), a component of the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), with the view to enlightening the labour front more on the prospects and challenges of the New Labour law. It was attended by representatives of workers front from all the 21 districts of the Ashanti region.

Mrs. Oppong therefore, appealed to workers to shirk themselves off the practice of only demonstrations and strike actions and begin to make full use of the avenues created by the new labour law in settling of misunderstandings and grievances with management and their employers.

Mr. Abubakari Adams-Sandu, Ashanti Regional Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), asked workers to now perceive the practice of wearing red bands and singing of war songs when negotiations by Labour and management was in session "as things of the past". He said with the new labour law in force

such strategies would not help and that the only way out was for them "to be well armed with information on the budgetary allocation to their outfit and relevant information to help put their case forward". On education of workers on the new Labour Act, Mr. Adams-Sandu disclosed that a project is to soon be embarked upon by the regional Council of Labour in collaboration with the BUSAC to educate workers in the Ashanti region more on its significance. Madam Agnes Gorman, Ashanti Regional Labour Officer, announced that the Labour Commission even though currently centralised, plans have been announced for its decentralisation to the regions and Districts. July 15 05