Accra, April 29, GNA – The National Tripartite Committee (NTC) comprising representatives of Government, Employers, and Organised Labour on Tuesday issued 10-point guidelines for workplace safety to contain the coronavirus disease pandemic in the country.
A communiqué issued by the NTC said the guidelines were reached on April 21st during the Committee’s meeting which was chaired by Mr. Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations – a signatory to the communiqué.
Other signatories are; Mr. Daniel Acheampong, President, Ghana Employers Association (GEA) and Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, General Secretary, Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), said
The communiqué which was later presented at a press conference by Mr. Baffour-Awuah made the following recommendations.
All employers should provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and related facilities for the safety and health of workers in compliance with the World Health Organisation (WHO) safety protocols and Ghana’s Ministry of Health (MoH) guidelines.
Employers should constitute Safety Committees to deal with all issues related to COVID-19 at workplaces.
Employers should appoint Focal Persons to facilitate the education of workers on the COVID-19 and that such Focal Persons should also have the responsibility of liaising with health professionals in the event of an outbreak of the virus at the workplace.
The communiqué appealed to employers to create an enabling environment for social distancing at workplaces and encourage their staff who could work from home to do so.
Unions should collaborate with employers to ensure that workers comply with and observe strictly the WHO and the MoH enhanced hygiene and safety protocols, including wearing of facemasks.
It encouraged Local Unions to educate workers on the shared responsibility of promoting personal safety at workplaces by wearing facemasks and ensuring personal and workplace hygiene at all times.
Employers and unions should collaborate and cooperate with the enterprise level through social dialogue to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sustainability of their respective enterprises.
The Labour Department (LD) and the Department of Factories Inspectorate (DFI) should monitor compliance with the WHO and MoH COVID-19 safety protocols and guidelines.
Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) COVID-19 Committees should intensify public education in their respective communities and ensure strict compliance with WHO protocols, Government, and MoH guidelines on the COVID-19 pandemic.
It also recommended that the Government policy on wearing facemask at all public places must be strictly enforced by the relevant authorities.
Mr. Baffour-Awuah, on behalf of the National Tripartite Committee, lauded frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19, especially those within the health fraternity and the security services.
He said should anything happen in the country that would require that another section of the population to also give off their best; they would take a cue from them (health workers and security forces).
On his part, Mr. Acheampong expressed his gratitude to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the bold and pragmatic decisions he had so far taken in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is indeed, gratifying to note that these decisions that the President had taken have all being based on science and data,” he said.
Dr. Baah said, “What happens at the workplace is extremely important because workers when they close, they go back to their homes. So, if somebody should get the virus at the workplace automatically the family at home is also affected. So, the idea is to make sure that all workplaces are safe.”
He appealed to workers to stay safe, support themselves and work with their employers and make sure that they sailed through the coronavirus crisis.
GNA