Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Ghana (Ratification: 1959)

Articles 10, 11 and 16 of the Convention. Human resources and material means of the labour inspectorate and coverage of workplaces. Following its previous comments on the challenges related to an insufficient number of inspectors and inadequate logistical support for inspections and enforcement, the Committee notes the indication in the report of the Government that there are currently 178 labour inspectors at the Labour Department (170 in 2022), for an ideal staff capacity of 604 inspectors. To increase the number of labour inspectors, the Government indicates that it has prompted the Office of the Head of Civil Service to post additional inspectors to the Labour Department. The Committee also welcomes the indications of the Government regarding the provision of 40 motorbikes and nine vehicles to the labour inspectorate to facilitate inspections, in addition to the system put in place to reimburse labour inspectors’ transportation costs, with a view to facilitating inspections. The Committee also notes that, according to the Statistical Reports of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations of 2022, the number of inspections conducted by the Department of Factories Inspectorate in the area of occupational safety and health has increased from 3,083 in 2021 to 3,479 in 2022. According to the same report, the Labour Department conducted a total number of 980 inspection visits in 2022, although the number of routine inspections decreased from 689 in 2021 to 447 in 2022. The Committee requests the Governmentto continue to take all the necessary measures to ensure that the number of labour inspectors is sufficient to secure the effective discharge of their duties, and to provide information on the measures taken to increase the number of labour inspectors. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide statistics on the number of inspectors in each Department, the number of inspection visits conducted by them, and the material means put at their disposal for the effective discharge of their duties.

Articles 17, 18 and 21(e). Enforcement of the legal provisions relating to the conditions of work and the protection of workers. The Committee notes the statistics provided by the Government in response to its previous comments regarding the penalties imposed for different violations detected. In the area of child labour, the Government reports 43 cases investigated, 19 resulting in prosecutions, out of which 4 have led to sentences, with fines ranging from 500 penalty units to 1,000 penalty units and a one-month sentence. In the area of wages and working time, the Government indicates that 3 out of 30 cases were successfully prosecuted, leading to fines ranging from 250 to 500 penalty units. Regarding any measures taken to revise the current penalties for labour law violations, the Government indicates that the Attorney-General has initiated a process to review and increase the pecuniary value of the penalty unit, as defined under Schedule 1 of the Fines (Penalty Units) Act, 2000. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the developments in this regard and to take all the necessary measures to ensure that the pecuniary value of penalties will remain dissuasive in the event of monetary inflation.The Committee also requests the Government to provide any available information on the reasons behind the relatively low number of successfully prosecuted cases, and to continue to provide statistics on the violations detected, their nature, and the number of prosecuted cases and their outcomes.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.