Volume 10, No.2 - March 2001

We're part of the union

Ghana child labour

Ghana: ICFTU condemns child labour

Hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian children are at work and anti-union discrimination by both public and private employers continues to be common practice, according to a new report by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

]The report coincides with a review of Ghana's trade policy by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and concentrates on Ghana's respect for internationally-recognised core labour standards which include freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, prohibition of child and forced labour and non-discrimination in employment.

The report calls on the WTO and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to require Ghana to tackle its abuses of basic workers' rights and respect the internationally recognised core labour standards which it has committed itself to at both institutions.

Ghana has ratified both the core ILO conventions protecting trade union rights. However, the report observes, there are serious regulatory infringements on trade union rights, including a lengthy procedure for calling strikes which makes it virtually impossible for workers to organise a legal strike.

The report also points to several cases where the government has been implicated in acts of anti-union discrimination. Many cases have gone unpunished, such as the one of a major automobile dealer which harassed and threatened unionised workers and dismissed hundreds without reason. The employer even threatened staff at gunpoint.

While Ghana has ratified both the core ILO Conventions on discrimination, societal discrimination against women is widespread, and this has become apparent in the working place as well. The report notes that numerous major collective bargaining agreements include provisions for family benefits that discriminate against female employees.

Ghana has ratified one of the ILO's two core conventions on child labour. The ICFTU report suggests that some 12% of children aged 10-14 are economically active. In urban Ghana child labour is particularly visible in markets, on transport facilities and as domestic servants. UNICEF reports that as many as 80% of girls working as domestic servants are between 10 and 14.

While forced labour is not widespread, the report reveals that a slavery practice traditional to several ethnic groups, known as Trokosi, is still common along the coast of Ghana. There are at least 2500 such slaves reliably reported in Ghana, and the true numbers must be much higher, the report concludes.

The Ghana report has been published as one in a series of ICFTU reports to pressure the WTO's 140 member governments to comply with the commitment to respect core labour standards that they made at the Ministerial Conferences of the WTO in Singapore in 1996 and Geneva in 1998, and in the ILO's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224 0232 or 32 4 76 621018.