LABOUR LAWS AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT IN GHANA

UNIT 2 SECTION
INDUSTRIAL 2
RELATIONS Unit 2, section 2: Terms and conditions of employment in Ghana

The aim of the Labour Act in relation to the provision of the general
conditions of employment is to provide employees with improved
protection, to avoid uncertainty and insecurity about the terms of the
employment relationship, and to create greater transparency at the
workplace. There are several conditions of employment in Ghana, and
knowledge of these is necessary for both employees and employers in
ensuring a sound industrial relations practice. Thus, while it is the
employer’s obligation to inform employees of the conditions applicable to
employment contract, it is also necessary for the employee to request for it
when the need arises. This session describes the employment contract and
introduces the student to the main conditions of employment in Ghana.

This section seeks to introduce the student to the legal framework that
underlie the terms and conditions of employment set out in the Labour Act,
and how they are administered in order to ensure sound industrial climate.
After a successful completion of this session, the student should be able to:
 explain the meaning of conditions of employment;
 list at list ten of the general conditions of employment in Ghana; and
 understand the consequences of breaching any of the general conditions
of employment

Meaning of conditions of employment

Conditions of employment are the legally enforceable terms in the
employment contract that govern the employment relationship between
employers and employees at the workplace. They include conditions that
may be unique to the individual, such as notice period, remuneration, fringe
benefits, and hours of work; those that form organization-wide policies,
such as discipline and grievance procedures; those generally negotiated by
the parties and incorporated into a collective bargaining agreement; and
those dictated by legislation. The following are among the most common
conditions of employment in Ghana. They are generally grouped into three:
1) Leave entitlement, 2) Hours of work, and 3) Rest periods.

Leave entitlement
Every worker in Ghana is entitled to not less than fifteen working days leave
with full pay in any calendar year of continuous service. Any agreement to
relinquish the entitlement to annual leave or to forgo such leave is void. A
worker may be permitted to take his or her annual leave in two approximate
equal parts. The expression “full pay” means the workers’ normal
remuneration, without overtime payment. It also includes the cash
equivalent of any remuneration in kind. The core issues under leave
entitlement in Ghana are discussed in the following:
 Continuous service
Continuous service is that period of service during which a staff member is
employed from the date of regular employment to the date of termination.
The date of employment is the date the employee began regular employment

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with the company. Continuity of service shall not be regarded as interrupted

by mere change of ownership or management of the company. Where the
work is not regularly maintained throughout the year, the requirement of
continuous service shall be deemed to have been met if the worker has
worked for not less than two hundred (200) days in a particular year.

 Interruption of work by public holidays and sickness of workers

Public holidays and absence from duty due to sickness certified by a
medical practitioner, and pregnancy and confinement, shall not affect the
annual leave entitlement of a worker. A period of absence from work
allowed owing to sickness, which is certified by a medical practitioner, and
which occurs after the commencement of and during annual leave shall not
be computed as part of the leave.

 Interruption of work by voluntary communal work, civic duties and

special leaves
A period during which a worker is absent from his or her normal duties with
the permission of the employer on account of the worker’s participation in
voluntary communal work, the discharge of civic duties or the granting of
special leave with or without pay, shall not be counted as part of the
worker’s annual leave.

 Sick leave not part of annual leave

A period of absence from work allowed owing to sickness, which is
certified by a medical practitioner, and which occurs after the
commencement of and during annual leave shall not be computed as part of
the leave.

 Leave to be uninterrupted
Every worker is entitled to enjoy an unbroken period of leave but an
employer, in case of urgent necessity, may in accordance with the Labour
Act, require a worker to interrupt his or her leave and return to work. Where
a worker is required by the employer to interrupt his or her leave, the worker
shall not forfeit the right to the remainder of the leave but shall take the
leave anytime thereafter. Where a worker takes his or her annual leave at the
end of a calendar year, the leave may continue without interruption, into the
following year. Any employer who requires a worker to interrupt his or her
annual leave, shall make up to the worker any reasonable expense incurred
on account of the interruption, and also resumption of the leave by the
worker.

 Record of employment leave

A worker shall, as much as may be possible, be given notice of the date of
commencement of his or her annual leave, at least, thirty days before the
worker takes the leave. Every employer is required to keep a record showing
the following particulars:

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− The date of employment of each worker employed by the employer

and the duration of the annual leave to which the worker is entitled;
− The dates on which the annual leave is taken by each worker; and
− The remuneration received by each worker in respect of the annual
leave.

 Leave entitlement to be restored to suspended worker on

reinstatement
Where a worker, suspended from the service of his or her employer prior to
disciplinary or criminal proceedings being taken against him or her is
reinstated, the worker shall be entitled to take the leave he or she would
have had if he or she had not been suspended.

 Termination of employment not to affect leave entitlement earned

Where the employment of a worker is terminated, the worker is entitled to
annual leave in proportion to the period of service in the calendar year. The
worker shall not be deprived of any other grants or awards to which the
worker is entitled including payment in lieu of notice of termination. These
conditions do not apply to cases where the employer has the right to dismiss
a worker without notice.

Note that the leave entitlements as discussed in (a) to (h) do not apply to a
person employed in an undertaking in which only members of the family of
the employer are employed.

Hours of work
The term working hours refers to the amount of time a worker spends at
work during a day. The hours of work for a person working in Ghana shall
be a maximum of eight hours a day or forty hours a week except in cases
expressly provided for in the Labour Act. There are four main issues
relating to hour of work as enshrined in the Labour Act: 1) commencement
and closing of work, 2) different hours of work, 3) paid and unpaid
overtime, and 4) shift and annual labourers.

 Commencement and closing of work

The time of commencement and closing of a worker’s hours of work in any
undertaking shall be fixed by the rules of the undertaking concerned subject
to the following:
− In the case of operations underground, work commences when the
worker enters the cage or lift to go down and ends when the worker
leaves it at the surface; and
− In the case of operations underground, where the work place is
reached by going down a gallery, the hours of work is reckoned from
the time when the worker enters the gallery to the time when he or
she leaves it at the surface.

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 Different hours of work

The rules of any undertaking or its branch may prescribe hours of work
different from eight hours a day on one or more days in the week, subject to
the following,
− Where shorter hours of work are fixed, the hours of work on the
other days of the week may be proportionately longer than eight
hours but shall not exceed nine hours a day or a total of forty hours a
week;
− Where longer hours of work are fixed the average number of hours
of work reckoned over a period of four weeks or less shall not
exceed eight hours a week; or
− In the case of an undertaking the work of which is of a seasonal
nature, where longer hours of work are fixed, the average number of
hours of work over a period of one year shall not exceed eight hours
a day except that the hours of work which may be fixed under this
paragraph shall not exceed ten hours a day.

 Paid and unpaid overtime

Where a worker in an undertaking works after the hours of work fixed by
the rules of that undertaking, the additional hours done shall be regarded as
overtime work. A worker in any such undertaking may not be required to do
overtime work unless that undertaking has fixed rates of pay for overtime
work. A worker shall not be compelled to do overtime work except for
undertakings or enterprises where:
− The very nature of which requires overtime in order to be viable; or
− Which are subject to emergencies that require that workers engage in
overtime work in order to prevent or avoid threat to life and
property.
Notwithstanding this requirement, a worker may be required to work
beyond the fixed hours of work without additional pay in certain exceptional
circumstances, including an accident threatening human lives or the very
existence of the undertaking.

 Hours of work for shift and manual labourers

Workers may be employed in shifts, but the average number of hours
reckoned over a period of four weeks or less shall not exceed eight hours a
day or forty hours a week if there is an established time-table for the shifts.
The Minister may prescribe shorter hours of work for workers in jobs
declared to be manual labour and in jobs likely to be injurious to health.
Work for which shorter hours are prescribed, shall be deemed to be
equivalent to work done on the basis of eight hours a day for the purpose of
all rights which may flow from the employment.

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Rest periods
In any undertaking;
 Where the normal hours of work are continuous, a worker is entitled to
at least thirty minutes break in the course of the work, but the break
forms part of the normal hours of work; and
 Where the normal hours of work are, in two parts, the break should not
be of less than one hour duration and does not form part of the normal
hours of work.

− Daily rest period

A person working in Ghana shall be granted a daily continuous rest period
of at least twelve hours duration between two consecutive working days.
The daily rest of the worker in an undertaking operating on a seasonal basis
may be of less than ten hours but of not more than twelve hours’ duration
over a period of at least sixty consecutive days in the calendar year.
− Weekly rest period
A worker shall, in addition to the rest periods, be given a rest period of
forty-eight consecutive hours, in every seven days of normal working hours,
and the rest period may, for preference, start from Saturday and end on the
Sunday following, and shall wherever possible, be granted to all of the
workers of the undertaking. Rest periods do not include public holidays.

Prohibition of restrictive conditions of employment

An employer shall not in respect of any person seeking employment, or of
persons already in his employment:
 Require that person to form or join a trade union or to refrain from
forming or joining a trade union of his or her choice;
 Require that person to participate or refrain from participating in the
lawful activities of a trade union;
 Refuse to employ the person because of that person’s membership of
trade union;
 Promise the person any benefit or advantage for not participating in
trade union activities; or
 Discriminate against the person on grounds of gender, race, colour,
ethnic origin, religion, creed, social or economic status, disability or
politics.

When an employee accepts a position with a new company, the company

will draw up an employment contract, detailing all the requirements and
conditions of the employment contract. As an employee, you have the right
to workplace terms and conditions, and your knowledge of these conditions
determines the extent to which you can participate in unionized decision
making. It is therefore, necessary to take time and study each condition
carefully.

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Self-assessment questions
(1) What is a condition of employment? List any five issues associated with
leave entitlement in Ghana.
(2) What is continuous service? Where the work is not regularly maintained
throughout the year, how would a worker be deemed to have met the
continuous service requirement?
(3) Every employer is required to keep a record of the employment leave.
What is the content of this record?

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