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

Labour Clauses (Public Contracts) Convention, 1949 (No. 94) - Ghana (Ratification: 1961)

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Scope and purpose of the Convention. In its report, the Government indicates that it has taken measures to bring its national legislation into conformity with the requirements of the Convention. It reports that standardized tender documents (STD), referenced in section 50(1) and the Sixth Schedule of Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2003 (Act 663), amended in 2016, now incorporate the clauses contained in Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee notes with interest that, pursuant to section V(6) of STD, a contractor is obliged to observe labour clauses on wages, working hours and other conditions of labour, and comply with labour laws applicable to the workers concerned. It notes, in particular, that wages and labour conditions shall not be lower than those established for the trade or industry where the work is carried out. In addition, the Committee notes that, in response to its previous comments requesting information on the measures taken to ensure that bidders in public procurement processes are effectively made aware of the terms of the required clauses, the Government refers to a general requirement for advertisement of all bids and labour clauses. In this regard, the Government points out that, pursuant to section 47 of PPA 2003, amended in 2016, requests for tenders shall be published in the Public Procurement Bulletin and on the Public Procurement Authority website. The new Public Procurement Regulations (L.I. 2466), which entered into force on 5 December 2022, require that an invitation to tender and an invitation to prequalify is in accordance with standard tender and prequalification documents. The Government also indicates that the Public Procurement Authority oversees the procurement processes and provides guidance to procuring entities on all terms of the clauses, while public entities organize pre-tender meetings in order to ensure that persons tendering for contracts understand the required clauses in the contract.

While duly noting the above information, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the fact that the Convention requires that working conditions ensured by labour clauses in public contracts to which the Convention is applicable should not be less favourable than the conditions fixed by way of either collective agreements, arbitration awards, or national legislation, given that, in many cases, minimum standards set by national legislation regarding wages and conditions of work may be exceeded by collective agreements or otherwise. Indeed, the purpose of the Convention is to ensure that workers employed for the execution of public contracts enjoy wages and other working conditions at least as favourable as those prevailing in the locality and normally established for the type of work concerned, whether established by collective agreement or otherwise, where the work is carried out. This has the effect of setting the best standards already established in the locality as minimum conditions for public contracts. The additional aim is that local standards higher than those established by law (which in practice means the most advantageous labour conditions) should be applied, where they exist. With regard to the Government’s renewed indication that only individuals or firms that obtain labour clearance certificates are qualified to bid on public contracts, the Committee recalls that the essential purpose of inserting labour clauses in public contracts goes beyond the objectives of mere certification, as its purpose is to eliminate the negative effects of competitive bidding on workers’ labour conditions. In light of the above considerations, the Committee requests the Government: (i) to indicate the manner in which public contracts to which the Convention is applicable guarantee the most favourable working conditions existing in the same industry and district, considering that the Convention refers to three potential sources, that is collective agreements, arbitration awards, or national laws or regulations; (ii) to provide information onwhether the employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned have been consulted on the terms of the labour clauses prior to their inclusion in the standardized tender documents, as required by Article 2(3) of the Convention; and (iii) to confirm that the labour clauses provided for in the standard tender documents are included in the requests for tenders to be published in the Public Procurement Bulletin and on the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) website.

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