Tema, Nov. 5, GNA – Mr John Odah, Executive Secretary of the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA), has urged the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) to make labour concerns a key focus of its operations.
The AfCFTA is an agreement that aims to create a single market for goods and services to deepen the economic integration of Africa.
Mr Odah made the call in Tema during a three-day workshop organised by the Trades Union Congress, Ghana, (TUC Ghana) in partnership with the International Trade Union Africa (ITUC Africa) on AfCFTA for Trade Union Leaders in Ghana.
He expressed worry that just like other major agreements signed for global and continental purposes, AfCFTA was also not paying key attention to labour standards.
“Just as it is with the global climate change discourse, where the voice of labour is regarded as an addendum and not as a critical mass in shaping the narrative of the quest for a shift from a carbon-intensive mode of production to a low carbon production platform, the same has happened to the AfCFTA,” he noted.
He explained that there was hardly a mention, mainstreaming or reflection of key labour concerns in the entire agreement, saying that was not supposed to be the case.
Mr Odah stressed that some observers attributed the shutting out of labour issues from the AfCFTA to the belief that improvement and growth in trade would automatically lead to better working conditions for workers.
He said, on the contrary, the foregoing possible reasons for shutting out workers and their issues from the AfCFTA appeared not to be sustainable, saying there was no evidence both empirically and historically that improvement in trade would automatically lead to better working conditions.
He said the entrenched variance in the objectives of capital and labour made it difficult if not impossible for increased benefits to capital to automatically translate into mutual benefits for labour without the intervention of labour standards.
Mr Odah, who is also the former General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), denied the claims that capital had enough goodness and goodwill to bestow satisfactory returns to labour.
He said that argument made a mockery of the global progress made in tripartism, social dialogue, collective bargaining, international labour standards and decent work.
He indicated that there was a plethora of evidence that improved labour conditions would lead to an overall improvement in productivity and economic growth.
He added that “there is a school of thought that believes that given the possibility of cut-throat competition among the African countries that had signed up to the AfCFTA, many governments in the continent might be forced to lower regulation, including lowering the cost of labour to attract investors and business”.
He noted that the absence of strong labour regulations in the AfCFTA would only lead to a “race to the bottom”.
The three-day workshop for Trade Union Leaders in Ghana focused on the impact of the AfCFTA and its provisions on employment for the youth with possible implications as an agreement.
GNA