Ghana and Netherlands have agreed to exchange ideas and learn social dialogue and labour related issues that will be mutually beneficial.
The decision was made when Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, paid a working visit to the Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Ron Strikker, at the Netherlands’ Embassy in Accra.
He noted that Ghana’s tripartite body enjoyed effective collaboration with Netherlands and would build on it and leverage on new changes in the world of work, which the latter represented the best practice in the world.
He said a delegation from Ghana’s tripartite committee would soon visit the Netherlands to participate in a social dialogue conference to share ideas with their counterparts there.
The Secretary- General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, who was part of the Minister’s entourage, pledged TUC’s support for the process and believed the cooperation would enable Ghana to tap into Netherlands’ success story.
He gave the assurance of the TUC’s readiness to cooperate with other members of the tripartite body to prevent labour unrest in order to address the new changes in the world of work.
Dr Yaw Baah said the TUC had good working relations with the Mondiaal FederatieNetherlandseVakverbong (FNV), the Netherlands’ counterpart of trade union, and urged the two nations to scale up to the national level.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Employers Association, Mr Alexander Frempong, also supported the idea of tapping from the Netherlands’ Social Dialogue arrangements and gave his Association’s support.
He noted that the Association had a working relation with the Dutch Employers Cooperation and expressed optimism that the two governments would move forward to the national level.
Ambassador Strikker in his response expressed delight for receiving the Minister and his delegation and said the Netherlands recognised social dialogue as a cornerstone of socio-economic development.
He added that, the Netherlands knew the usefulness of Social dialogue and believed that explained why strikes were rare in the Netherlands.
He assured the Minister and his delegation that the Government of Netherlands was ready to welcome the Ghanaian delegation and would personally arrange meetings between the members of Ghana’s Tripartite Committee and other social dialogue institutions in the Netherlands for fruitful discussions that would benefit their respective citizens.
