Ghana Trades Union Congress is not the same as Organized Labour – GFL

The Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) says the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) is not the same as Organized Labour as people are made to believe.

Mr. Abraham Koomson, the Secretary General of the GFL, told newsmen in Tema that the power of the TUC to legally represent all workers in Ghana was revoked with the amendment of the Industrial Relations Act (1960), Act 299.

Mr. Koomson said the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) replaced the TUC with Organized Labour, adding that it did not mention the structure and organogram of Organized Labour, a lacuna that, according to him, the TUC had been taking advantage of.

“Organized Labour, which is a term (name) provided under the laws of Ghana, represents a body of recognized and independent labour unions, federations, and associations working in concert to pursue the common interest of working people in and of Ghana,” he explained.

He said to cure the problem, GFL resorted to the High Court for some answers, adding, however, that the court advised that they pursued a settlement, out of which TUC and GFL agreed on three things.

The terms of settlement dated April 25, 2010, indicated that TUC and GFL were to work together to get a working definition of the term organized labour, an organogram for decision making within organized labour, and a timetable for the adoption by all labour unions of the working document and operationalizing the same.

He indicated that following this, a nine-member committee with representatives of labour unions such as ICU, TUC, CLOGSAG, GFL, and others came out with a draft document on the three terms of the settlement agreement.

Mr Koomson added that the committee also came up with the scope of organized labour cooperation and partnership, objectives, membership, governance structure, meetings, funding, and functions of leadership.

He stated, however, that the TUC had been frustrating the conclusion of the process and the adoption of the draft of the committee to put in place proper organized labour instead of the knee-jerk and ad hoc approach by the TUC.

Meanwhile, the GFL, in a letter dated June 20, 2023, to the TUC, has called for the deliberations on the formalization of organized labour structures to be concluded soonest to precede effective collective action of labour.

This, the Federation said, would enable labour to legitimately exercise its mandate to address the concerns of workers.

Source: GNA