ActionAid-Ghana, an international Nongovernmental Organization (NGO), is advocating the prosecution of heads of organizations in both formal and informal sectors who violate the rights and dignity of female employees.
ActionAid said, the practice where young women are subjected to all forms of abuse in their quest to gain employment must stop. It wants the labour department to enforce a law governing all work places to ensure that there is conducive environment for both sexes.
The NGO also wants a phenomenon where ladies seeking employment are asked by men manning organizations to either give what they have for what they want without recourse to their qualifications and competency to stop.
The gender centered NGO has also made passionate appeal to craftsmen or masters of head dressing salons, tailors and seamstresses, carpenters, mechanics and all enterprises in the informal sector to be guided by the labour law when they are dealing with their apprentices.
Under children’s Act, section 100, parents or relatives of a child are mandated to provide basic tools and safety materials for the child’s training. The act also mandates the master to pay allowance not less than half of the national daily minimum wage for the sustenance of the apprentice.
Both the parent and the craftsman are liable for prosecution of five hundred penalty units for violating the act. The children’s act further mandates the master to provide shelter and also issue a certificate to the apprentice after training.
Project officer of ActionAid Ghana young urban women Melody Azinim explained that the training was to educate employers on the need to respect their female employees rights.
The training she said was also to let employers know their rights when dealing with their workers.
A consultant to ActionAid-Ghana Young Urban Women project, Hajia Alima Mahama underscored the need for everyone irrespective of your sex to enjoy the fundamental human rights enshrine in the 1992 constitution of Ghana.
She said democracy was build on rights workers must enjoy their rights and dignity at all times.
The Public Education officer of Commission on Human Rights and Administrative justice (CHRAJ), Mr Inusah Iddrisu warns employers who deliberately violating their employees rights to desist or face the legal implications of their actions.
However, some craftsmen (Masters) of employable training centers who hitherto were unaware of the law pledge to honor their obligations. While promising to abide by the law, they said, honoring their obligations will largely depend on their daily earnings
