CHINESE COMPANY ACCUSED OF VIOLATIONS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Africa Coastal Services (ACS), a Chinese shipping company operating at the Tema Port, has been accused of allegedly violating the rights of its Ghanaian employees with impunity.

The employees accused the management of the company of using what they claimed to be ‘overt and covert’ methods to compel the employees to be members of a labour organization called National Union of Harbour Employees (NUHEM).

According to the workers, such acts constitute Unfair Labour Practice and violates Section 128 of the Labour Act, Act 651 of 2003, which states that “An employer who takes part in the formation of a trade union or, with the intention of adversely influencing a trade union, makes  any contribution in money or money’s worth to that trade union, is guilty of unfair labour practice.”

DAILY GUIDE investigations revealed that the workers were members of NUHEM but have decided to quit the union and join the Maritime and Dockworkers Union (MDU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

They said they were leaving NUHEM because they were unhappy that the union was taking decisions with the management of the Chinese company without consulting them.

The management of the company was unhappy about the workers’ decision to join MDU and then subsequently introduced redundancy exercise which affected the leadership of the local union who were spearheading the unionization of the members into MDU.

The company had embarked on two redundancy exercises.

The first redundancy exercise affected 16 employees and the second also affected a similar number.

As a result, six key local union leaders who were instrumental in the unionization of the workers to MDU were reportedly declared redundant by management.

Some of the employees, especially the local union leaders affected by the redundancy exercise were given redundancy letters in a meeting which had been convened to discuss the redundancy exercise and were asked to leave the premises of the company the same day.

The action of the management of Africa Coastal Services is a violation of Section 65(1) (a) of the Labour Act which requires that the employer provides information in writing to the trade union not later than three months before the contemplated changes.

The management of Africa Coastal Services did not discuss with the union measures taken to mitigate, avert or minimise the adverse effect of the redundancy exercise on the workers and this violates Section 65(1) (b) of the Labour Act.

Investigations further revealed that after declaring the permanent employees redundant, the management of ACS employed casual workers to replace the permanent ones in clear contravention of the Decent Work agenda of ILO which the government of Ghana is signatory.

The workers appealed passionately to the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations as well as the labour authorities to investigate the allegations against Africa Coastal Services limited.

When contacted, Emmanuel Asore, Human Resource Manager of the Chinese firm, denied the workers’ claims and said the company does not interfere in union matters.

He said “management does not sit down to discuss union matters, let alone interfere in what they do.”