LABOUR LAWS AND EMPLOYMENT OF CERTAIN GROUPS OF PERSONS

UNIT 2 SECTION
INDUSTRIAL 5
RELATIONS Unit 2, section 5: Employment of certain groups of persons

The Labour Act provides for the protection of certain groups of people in
the employment relationship. They include persons with disability, women
and young persons. A detailed discussion on the employment of these
people has been made in this session.

At the end of this session, students should be able to:

(a) understand the concepts of disability, women and young persons in
industrial relations practice;
(b) explain the legal framework surrounding the employment of persons
with disability, women and young persons in Ghana.
(c) recognise the situation of persons with disability, women and young
persons in Ghana;

Employment of persons with disability

Sections 45 to 54 of the Labour Act deal with the employment of people
with disability in Ghana. Persons with disability are those, who, on account
of injury, disease or congenital deformity, are substantially handicapped in
obtaining or keeping employment or in engaging in any work of their own
account of a kind which apart from that injury, disease or deformity would
be suited to their age, experience and qualification. A study on work and
employment of persons with disability by the Human Rights Council of the
ILO Convention in March 2013 indicate the following on persons with
disability across nations with available statistics on the labour market
situation of people with disabilities:
 People with disabilities are less likely to be in full time employment
than non-disabled persons;
 The unemployment rates of persons with disabilities are up to twice as
high as for non-disabled people, in countries for which data is available;
 Where they are employed, workers with disabilities are more likely to be
in low-paid jobs with poor promotional prospects and working
conditions; ref report cited in World Report – no 48 – on p. 239;
 disabled women are less likely to have a decent job than either non-
disabled women or men with disabilities;
 People with certain types of disability – such as intellectual disability
and mental health disabilities are reported to face greater difficulties in
finding decent work;

Linked to their low labour force participation in higher income countries

and their concentration in low paid work with poor prospects, often in the
informal economy - people with disabilities and their families are more
likely to be among the poor in society, due to a bi-directional link between
disability and poverty.

Many people with disabilities are not registered either as employed or as

unemployed, and are thus invisible in the labour market, surviving either

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through the support of their families or through social security payments;

this represents a serious bank of untapped potential in these countries.

Following these statistics, many nations have taken measures to protect

persons with disabilities in the employment relationship. In Ghana, the
following provisions have been made for the protection and encouragement
of persons with disabilities:
 Registration of persons with disability
A person with disability may apply to the Public Employment Centre,
established under section 2 of the labour Act for registration. The Centre
shall upon registration of a person with disability, issue the person a
certificate of registration in a form determined by the Chief Labour Officer.
 Special incentives
Special incentives shall be provided to an employer who employs persons
with disability in Ghana. An employer who employs a person with disability
shall notify the nearest Centre of the employment and where the employer
fails to do so, the Chief Labour Officer shall direct the employer to comply.
The same incentives shall be given to a person with disability engaged in a
business or enterprise. In either case, the said incentives shall be determined
by the Minister.
 Particulars of contract of employment
A contract of employment with a person with disability shall include the
particulars of the job or post, the working hours, amount of remuneration,
transport facilities, and any special privileges which that person shall be
accorded by virtue of the employment.
 Persons with disability in public service posts
Persons with disability who enter the public service shall be appointed on
the same terms as persons without disability, irrespective of whether they
are allowed to work fewer hours or otherwise; and shall be classified in
accordance with their previous period of qualifying service for the purposes
of promotion and other public service awards.
 Employment not to cease upon disablement
The employment of a person who suffers disability after the employment,
shall not cease if his or her residual capacity for work is such that he or she
can be found an employment in the same or some other corresponding job in
the same undertaking. Where no such corresponding job can be found, the
employment may be terminated by notice. The length of notice of
termination shall not be shorter than one month.
 Transfer of persons with disability
A person with disability in employment may be transferred to another job
within the same undertaking if the other job can be regarded in the light of
all relevant circumstances as a corresponding job. The relevant
circumstances shall include:
− The person’s qualifications;
− The person’s physical condition;
− The person’s place of residence; and

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− Whether the transfer may worsen the conditions in which the person
entered the employment.
 Training of persons with disability
Where it is necessary to train or retrain a person with disability to overcome
any aspect of his or her disability in order to cope with any aspect of the
person’s employment, the employer may provide or arrange at the
employer’s expense the training for the person.

Employment of women
In most countries, women were largely limited to low-paid and poor status
occupations for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, or earned less pay than
men for doing the same work. This scenario drew the attention of the ILO to
formulate measures for protecting and encouraging the employment of
women across the world. In the case of Ghana, the ILO Conventions on
women employment have been defined in the Labour Act to include the
following:
 Night work or overtime by pregnant women
Unless with her consent, an employer shall not:
− Assign or employ a pregnant woman to do any night work between
the hours of ten o’clock in the evening and seven o’clock in the
morning. “Night work” in relation to woman, means work at any
time within a period of eleven consecutive hours that includes the
seven consecutive hours occurring between ten o’clock in the
morning but in industrial undertakings which are influenced by the
seasons, the work may be reduced to ten hours in sixty days of the
year
− Engage for overtime a pregnant woman or a mother of a child of less
than eight months old.

The pregnant woman or mother may present a written complaint to the

National Labour Commission established under section 135 of the Labour
Act against an employer who contravenes this requirement. The
Commission shall investigate the complaint and its decision on the matter
shall, subject to any other law, be final.

 Prohibition of assignment of pregnant women

An employer shall not assign, whether permanently or temporarily, a
pregnant woman employee to a post outside her place of residence after the
completion of the fourth month of pregnancy; if the assignment, in the
option of a medical practitioner or midwife, is detrimental to her health. The
pregnant woman may present a written complaint to the Commission
against the employer who contravenes this important requirement. The
Commission shall investigate the complaint and its decision on the matter
shall, subject to any law, be final.

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 Maternity, annual and sick leave

A woman worker on production of medical certificate issued by a medical
practitioner or a midwife indicating the expected date of her confinement, is
entitled to a period of maternity leave of at least twelve weeks in addition to
any period of annual leave she is entitled after her period of confinement. A
woman on maternity leave is entitled to be paid her full remuneration and
other benefits to which she is otherwise entitled. The period of maternity
leave may be extended for at least two additional weeks where the
confinement is abnormal or where in the course of the same confinement
two or more babies are born. An employer shall not dismiss a woman
worker because of her absence from work on maternity leave.

Where an illness, medically certified by a medical practitioner, is due to her

pregnancy, the woman worker is entitled to additional leave as certified by
the medical practitioner. If the illness, medically certified by a medical
practitioner, is due to her confinement the woman worker is entitled to an
extension of the leave after confinement as certified by the medical
practitioner.

A nursing mother is entitled to interrupt her work for an hour during her
working hours to nurse her baby. Interruptions of work by a nursing mother
for the purpose of nursing her baby shall be treated as working hours and
paid for accordingly. A “nursing mother” is a woman with a child suckling
at her breast for a period of not more than one year.

Employment of young persons

Following the provisions in the Ghana Children Act 1998, (Act 560) the
minimum age for admission of children into employment is fifteen (15).
However, children may be employed at the age of thirteen (13) to do
light work. The minimum age for engagement of young persons in
hazardous work, as contained in the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) is eighteen
(18). A young person is a person of or above 18 years of age but below 21
years. Young persons are not allowed to work in an underground mine. The
Labour Act makes the following provisions regarding the employment of
young persons in Ghana.

 Prohibition of employment of young persons in hazardous work

A young person shall not be engaged in any type of employment or work
likely to expose the person to physical or moral hazard. The Minister may,
by legislative instrument, determine the type of employment that is likely to
expose a young person to physical or moral hazard. An employer shall not
employ a young person in an underground mine work. A person who
contravenes these requirements commits an offence and is liable on
summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 100 penalty units.

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 Health of young persons

An employer shall not employ a young person on any work unless a medical
practitioner has certified that the young person is in good health and is
medically fit for the work. Where an employer fails to comply with this
requirement, he shall be ordered by the Minister to have the medical
examination conducted.

 Registration of young persons

An employer in an industrial undertaking shall keep a register of young
person’s employed by him or her and their dates or birth or their apparent
ages. The Chief Labour Officer shall direct an employer who fails to comply
with the direction. Industrial undertakings include:
− Mines, quarries and other works for the extraction of minerals from
the earth;
− Undertakings in which articles are manufactured, altered, cleaned,
repaired, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale, broken up or
demolished, or in which materials are shipbuilding or in the
generation, transformation or transmission of electricity or motive
power of any kind;
− Undertakings engaged in building and civil engineering work,
including constructional, repair, maintenance, alteration and
demolition work.

Everyone has a legal right to work and engage himself or herself in a lawful
employment. Having said this however, it is worthy to note that certain
groups of persons have unique circumstances which often deter them or
make their engagement a bit difficult. To such group of persons, the law
requires that specific attention is paid to their engagement through the
provisions in the Labour Act.

Self-assessment questions
(1) Who is a young person? What happens if an employer employs a young
person in an underground mine work in Ghana? Under what age would a
young person qualify for an employment in a hazardous work?
(2) Explain the issues relating to maternity, annual and sick leave of women
workers in Ghana.
(3) A person with disability in employment may be transferred to another
job within the same undertaking if the other job can be regarded in the
light of all relevant circumstances as a corresponding job. In accordance
with the Labour Act, outline the relevant circumstances in this case.

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