Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Ghana (Ratification: 1959)

The Committee notes the Government’s report.

Article 4 of the Convention. Measures to encourage and promote the development of voluntary negotiation between employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Committee notes that sections 99-100 of the Labour Act, 2004, regulate the issue of trade union recognition for collective bargaining purposes by providing that the Chief Labour Officer shall issue, upon request by a trade union, a certificate appointing that trade union as the appropriate representative to conduct negotiations on behalf of the class of workers specified in the collective bargaining certificate (section 99); the Chief Labour Officer shall, subject to regulations made by the Minister, determine which union shall hold a collective bargaining certificate in a situation where there is more than one trade union at the workplace (section 99(4)); the Chief Labour Officer may issue an amending certificate after consultation with the trade union named in the certificate and the appropriate employers’ organization (section 100).

It seems to the Committee that the Chief Labour Officer has full discretion to decide whether to grant recognition to a trade union and that the criteria upon which this decision should be based are not specified. The Committee considers that in cases in which a system of "compulsory" recognition has been established, where the employer must recognize the existing trade union(s) under certain conditions, it is important for the determination of the trade union in question to be based on objective and pre-established criteria so as to avoid any opportunity for partiality or abuse. Furthermore, when national legislation provides for a compulsory procedure for recognizing unions as exclusive bargaining agents, certain safeguards should be attached, such as: (a) the certification to be made by an independent body; (b) the representative organization to be chosen by a majority vote of the employees in the unit concerned; (c) the right of an organization, which in a previous trade union election failed to secure a sufficiently large number of votes, to request a new election after a stipulated period; and (d) the right of any new organization other than the certified organization to demand a new election after a reasonable period has elapsed (see General Survey, op. cit., paragraph 240). The Committee requests the Government to provide information on any regulations adopted or envisaged under section 99 of the Labour Act with a view to setting up procedures and criteria relevant to the Chief Labour Officer’s competence to determine which union shall hold a collective bargaining certificate.