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The National Labour Commission (NLC) has received a total of 6,713 complaints filed by individuals, workers’ groups, trade unions and employers from both the public and private sectors since its inception 10 years ago.

Averagely, 671 cases were filed annually at the rate of 56 complaints monthly during the period.

Mr Edward Briku-Boadu, Chairman of the NLC, speaking at a Social Partners’ Workshop in Accra, said of all the cases filed, unfair terminations recorded were 1,898, representing 28.3%, and the highest number of the total disputes recorded.

The disputes filed include summary dismissal, unfair terminations, retirement benefit, End-of-Service benefit, redundancy/severance pay, workman’s compensation, medical, maternity protection, unpaid earned leave, SSNIT claims, and discrimination in terms of employment.

Out of the number, the Commission, Briku-Boadi said, fully settled 3,438 cases, representing 51.2%.

The settled cases were done through facilitation, summary hearings/formal hearings, mediation and arbitration – voluntary and compulsory.

The remaining 48.8% represented cases at various levels of resolution, cases struck out for lack of merit and/or want of prosecution and cases that could not be processed due to insufficient information.

Briku-Boadu said, “In terms of sector, the private sector recorded high disputes per head count in respect of the total complaints while the public sector recorded the highest number per number of complaints.

“In terms of industry, the health and education sectors recorded the highest disputes while in the private sector, financial, manufacturing and small and medium businesses recorded very high number of disputes,” he said.

The workshop, under the theme ‘The National Labour Commission in Retrospect – Ten Years of Establishment: Accomplishments and Challenges,’ was organised by the Commission to commemorate its 10th anniversary, which fell yesterday.

It is also to open up itself for critique of its activities and performance over the period.

Mr Briku-Boadu said a decade in the life of a strategic institution like the NLC is worthy of acknowledgement and celebration.

“Ten years is also a period for review of the performance and objective assessment of an establishment, hence the theme,” he stated.

He said during the period under review, none of the 97 strikes recorded by the Commission both from the public and private economies was legal.

“…All the strikes embarked upon were illegal under the law, this is because due processes for embarking upon legal strikes pursuant to the Labour Act were not followed,” he said.

The Commission also recorded six lockouts during the period as a result of lack of clarity in the type of contract letters issued to workers, lack of clarity in terms of conditions of employment/contract, absence of explicit conditions of service or employment, non-issuance of appointment/contract letters to employees, among others.

Majority of the social partners urged the Commission to embark on bilateral engagement with the partners to facilitate its activities.

They also advocated massive education of the public on the Labour Act to curtail the number of complaints filed by the Commission and also look at the law and see if the Commission members could be made permanent to facilitate the work of the Commission.