Vacate Unsafe Working Places ? Workers Told | Business Guide ...

Victims of oppression

The Labour Rights Institute (LRI) has advised Ghanaian workers to vacate their workplaces when conditions at those places threaten their health and safety.

Mohammed Affum, Executive Coordinator, LRI, in a release issued after the collapse of the Melcom Shopping Centre building, advised workers to exercise their right under the Labour Act and stop working for uncaring employers when the conditions are not good.

?Workers should take such action and report the life-threatening conditions to their supervisor,? it said.

The right of workers is derived from Section 119 of the Labour Act.

The statement said the Labour Act defines as unlawful any dismissal, termination of employment or non-payment of wages of workers who have dissociated themselves from dangerous and serious situations at their workplaces.

The Labour Act further provides that when workers find themselves in a situation at the workplace where they reasonably believe an imminent and serious danger to their life, safety and health, they should immediately report this fact to their supervisor and dissociate themselves from the situation, said the LRI.

If the workers of Melcom Shopping Centre were aware of their rights and had stopped working in the shop after a report of cracks in the building was made to their supervisor, those who died would have been saved, the statement said.

According to the LRI, the rights of workers provided for in the Labour Act include the right to work under satisfactory, safe and healthy conditions.

?That is why the Labour Act has, in addition to making employers largely responsible for ensuring a safe working environment, given workers the right to vacate health and life-threatening situations as protection from possible injuries or death from workplace accidents,? it explained.

?So where an employer orders workers, who have vacated dangerous working conditions at the workplace to return to work, the workers should refuse such order explaining that such refusal will not amount to insubordination.

According to the statement, the order itself will be against the Labour Act and therefore unlawful.

The Institute advised workers, who are threatened with sanctions for refusing to work in conditions that threaten their health to report to their trade unions, the Labour Department or the National Labour Commission for the employer to be called to order.

The LRI therefore called on government to resource the Labour Department and Factory Inspectorate Division, both of the Ministry of Employment and Manpower, to enable them conduct regular inspection of enterprises to ensure the rights of workers in employment, including the right to work under satisfactory.

By Stella Danso Addai

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Source: http://www.businessguideghana.com/?p=6991

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