The National Labour Commission (NLC) has charged HR managers to be proactive in helping to resolve industrial disputes.
According to the Commission, many of the disagreements at the enterprise level could be prevented from erupting into industrial disputes if human resource managers become more proactive in ensuring industrial peace.
Dr Mrs Bernice Welbeck, Director of Administration and Human Resource of the NLC, in an interview with ADR Daily in Accra, said most of the cases filed at the Commission are related to human resource management.
According to her, an analysis of the complaints shows that most of the cases start as minor disagreements and blow up into disputes due to the failure of HR managers and management in general, to have them resolved.
Also, she said most of the cases show that procedure was not followed in taking certain decisions against workers, explaining that it shows weaknesses in the knowledge of some HR managers about the Labour laws and Collective Bargaining Agreements.
For instance, she said most of the cases of unfair termination of employment which tops the number of disputes filed with the Commission, could have been avoided if the right procedures were followed.
Dr Welbeck, in that regard, encouraged HR managers to endeavour to build their capacity through regular training to be abreast of the labour laws and best practices to ensure industrial harmony.
A total of 1,898 unfair termination cases, representing 28.3 per cent of the total number of 7,449 disputes were filed with the Commission between 2005 and 2015.
Statistics from the Commission show that it is followed by 1,804 disputes relating to leave issues and transfers which accounted for 24.2 per of the cases.
A total of 1,605 disputes over summary dismissals represent 21.5 percent were recorded over the period.
The statistics show that an average of 748 cases was filed annually at the rate of 56 complaints monthly.
The total number of cases involved over 3.5 million complainants from both public and private institutions.
Other cases recorded include unpaid and delayed salaries (624cases, 8.3 per cent), Redundancy and severance (516 cases, 6.9 per cent), Retirement benefit variations (388, 5.2 per cent), Workman’s compensation (191 cases, 2.5 per) and Strikes concerning poor remuneration and collective bargaining agreement (108 cases, 1.4 per cent).
By NiiAdotey Mingle/adrdaily.com
