Adopt right procedures to resolve labour disputes – CJ

Adopting the right procedures in labour issues will help reduce work load of the judiciary, the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, has said.

He said the courts could only be invited to enforce the law on any labour matter when the Na­tional Labour Commission (NLC) plays it part by ensuring the laid down procedures were employed during adjudication of labour disputes.

The Chief Justice said these on Thursday when the NLC paid a courtesy call on him in his office in Accra.

Justice Yeboah noted that there would not be the need for the high court to reopen a case if the right procedures were taken by the NLC.

But in the event the high court reopens a case after the right pro­cedures were adopted, the Chief Justice said the NLC could appeal the decision of the high court at the Supreme Court.

The Chief Justice said that the decision of the Supreme Court which was the highest court of the land, then became binding on the high court.

Justice Yeboah said that cen­tralisation of institutions and the failure to use administrative tribu­nals in resolving labour disputes remained a challenge.

The Chief Justice advised the NLC to engage good lawyers who were capable of pursuing cases from the high court to the Supreme Court.

For his part, Justice Kwabena Asuman-Adu, the chairman of the NLC, described the judiciary as an important stakeholder in labour matters.

He stressed the need to en­gage the judiciary as they were the first point of call whenever there was a labour dispute.

Justice Asuman-Adu, who is a retired high court judge told the Ghanaian Times in an interview that the NLC considers training recorders- those who record proceedings during adjudication and transcribe the recordings as a priority.

Touching on centralisation,  Justice Asuman-Adu said the NLC had committees who sit in only three out of the 16 regions.

The NLC Chairman men­tioned Takoradi, Kumasi, and Tema as the regions where NLC committees sit and added that the NLC was in the process of setting another committee in Sunyani, and would set more in all the regions if it got the neces­sary financial support.

BY MALIK SULLEMANA