Agnes Boye-Doe
Accra, Dec. 3, GNA – To ensure quality Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) for workers, union leaders have suggested the incorporation of occupational health and safety measures in all local unions’ proposals to prioritise safety of at the workplace for the collective good of all.
Proposals of local unions should not only centre on salaries and allowances but must factor in safety at the workplace to facilitate their acceptance and action.
Mr Morgan Ayawine, the General Secretary, Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said he would make it a policy for all local unions of companies and institutions to incorporateoccupational health and safety in their proposals before they would receive the required action.
“Occupational Health and Safety are very important. I am going to make it a policy that no proposal of any local ofcompanies or institutions will be accepted if it is without a small aspect of occupational health and safety,” he said.
“I plead with my colleague general secretaries of the other unions to do same. We should not just be interested in salaries, allowances and talk-shops without taking concrete measures to institutionalise occupational health and safety.”
“We should take practical steps to entrench it in all our documents to give us strong CBAs.”
Mr Ayawine said this at the opening of a two-day workshop in Accra on: “Occupational Health and Safety” for members of the ICU, Communication Workers Union (CWU), and the TUC Security Union on Monday.
It was organised by UNI Africa, in collaboration with the ICU, CWU, and TUC Security to step up the support for unions in collective bargaining on behalf of workers, especially remote workers, and promote their rights to better conditions of service.
The workshop took cognisance of all types of risks – biological, sexual harassment, environmental, chemical, physical, psychosocial hazards, violence, and fire outbreaks – and how these could be mitigated.
He urged the unions and organisational management to take practical steps to incorporate the prevention of all those risks in their documents to ensure safety of both employers and employees.
Mr Franklin Owusu Ansah, the General Secretary, Health Services Workers Union, who took participants through: “Mental Health at the Workplace,” said a toxic work environment or lack of support could lead to feelings of hopelessness, low energy, and decreased outputs.
He gave the World Health Organisation’s definition of Mental Health as the state of wellbeing in which the individual realises his/her own abilities to cope with the normal stresses of life and work productively to contribute fruitfully to his/her community or environment.
Mental health, a psychological state of the mind, could manifest emotionally and behaviourally and that: “excessive work hours and lack of personal time can strain personal relationships and mental health,” he noted.
Touching on some statistics, Mr Owusu Ansah said 10 to 13 per cent of Ghana’s population was not well, “meaning for every 10 to 13 people you count, one person is not well but among them is some three per cent whose situation could be worse.”
About 2.4 million Ghanaians were mentally ill, with some having mild to moderate conditions, he noted.
Organiations could improve workplace mental health and safety by educating employees on related topics and providing psychosocial and confidential counselling and support services for them.
Mr John A. Hayfrom, the Director of Education, ICU, took participants through “Sexual Harassment at the Workplace” and said company policies must protect victims of such harassments who were bold enough to report, or any individual who intervened to ensure those cases were reported.
Collective agreements must be formulated with a clause on sexual harassment, which, he said, should contain the mode and timelines for reporting, complaints/reporting procedure, protection of the victim, and punitive measures for culprits.
Mr Joseph Yao Hotor, the General Secretary, CWU, advised union members to priotise their health and safety while abiding by the rules governing their profession and work practices in order not to fall foul of the law.
He said they should build their skills to improve performance and productivity rather than engaging in fictious activities to cheat the system, which could have dire consequences.
He urged union executives to be mindful of what they defended so as not to be perceived as unprofessional to ridicule themselves.
“You must not just defend every case simply because the person is your member. What is bad is bad and cannot be justified. You can ensure a fair hearing for the person but be careful of what you defend,” he added.
GNA