Madam Agnes Kunihira, a Member of the Parliament of Uganda, together with some Ugandan public officials, has paid a courtesy call on Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations in Accra.
The visit was part of a study tour by the Ugandan Delegation to learn best practices from the Ghanaian Labour Management and Industrial Relations practices and be able to incorporate lessons shared into the Ugandan Employment Act, which is currently under review.
In his remarks, the Minister said, he was happy about the visit as it would also create a knowledge sharing platform for the delegation to learn, understand and exchange ideas on the Ghanaian Labour Law and its associated policies.
Mr Baffour-Awuah revealed that Ghana and Uganda’s relationship dated back when it comes to issues of Parliamentary activities.
He recalled the bilateral relationship between the two countries as far back as Ghana’s independence era, where Ghanaian delegation went to understudy the Parliament of Uganda in a bid to understand their governance system and operations.
The Minister mentioned some areas of interest worth noting for best practices within the Ghanaian labour regime and management of labour administration including the rights of workers, the rights of migrant workers and the abuses of domestic workers, sexual harassment, child labour/force labour, and modern-day slavery/human trafficking.
Mr Baffour-Awuah briefed the team on how the Ministry had collaborated with key stakeholders and non- actors in the labour migration space to chalk successes.
He noted that the journey had been a very long one but commended the roles of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the Ghana Immigration Service, the Ghana Police Service, the Labour Department and the Ministry of the Interior as partners for supporting the development of the National Labour Migration Policy.
Mr Baffour-Awuah Awuah explained the processes and procedures for exporting labour as well as the channels for reporting, saying “where there are challenges for migrant workers, especially domestic workers, they have contacts with the Labour Department and the Foreign Missions to lodge complaint and get support.”
The Minister recalled how he personally caused the arrest of some females trying to leave the shores of Ghana to work in some Asia countries, he lamented.
This, he said explains why a ban was placed on direct to homes migration to the Gulf States.
He said some efforts put in place to salvage the situation was the passage of the Domestic Workers Regulation L.I. 2408 and the Bilateral Agreements entered into with countries like Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to manage and address issues of domestic work within the migration space in Ghana and abroad.
He mentioned the roles played by the Public Employment Centres (PECs) and the Private Employment Agencies (PEAs).
He bemoaned how unregistered PEAs were causing nuisance but said the situation was under control and that the government was still looking for best options to deal with perpetrators.
The Minister explained Ghana’s effort in seeking to ratify Convention 190, pointing out that two surveys had been carried out recently to ascertain the validity of Violence and Sexual Harassment at workplaces.
On her part, Madam Kunihira also highlighted on a number of issues that confronted their country but notably said, among others that, sexual harassment cases were incessant at workplaces in Uganda.