The Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Georgina Wood has announced that a division of the High Court has been set up to deal exclusively with labour issues next month.

She announced this at the 4th Triennial Delegates Conference of the Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSAG) at Takoradi in the Western Region.

Mrs. Wood's announcement follows an appeal by the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) to her ladyship to designate a few High Courts in the Greater Accra Region to exclusively adjudicate industrial relations disputes emanating from the National Labour Commission (NLC).

The GFL and other labour unions are of the opinion that the Labour Commission has not lived up to the expectations of Ghanaian workers; hence the need for special labour courts to ensure fair and expeditious settlement of labour grievances to forestall industrial peace and economic development.

"The NLC has not been able to assert its powers effectively. Employers mostly challenge its ruling, take it to the high court which in turn overturn the cases," says Mr. Abraham Koomson, Secretary-General of GFD.

Mr. Koomson lamented that because the traditional courts are saddled with high volume of civil suits and criminal cases, there is little attention for industrial / labour dispute settlement; resulting in undue delays in the resolution of such disputes.

He said the judges are not familiar with industrial relations matters and usually rely on adversarial system of justice which at times breeds disharmony between employers and employees.

"In recent times, the courts have relied heavily on the Common Law (Master, servant relationship) in determining cases of unfair termination of appointment. Consequently, their rulings have always endorsed termination of appointment of workers without reasons."

Mr. Koomson expressed the disappointment of organised labour with the NLC, saying the establishment of the NLC and enactment of the Labour Act 651 (2003) have not helped workers much.

Before the coming into force of the Labour Act 2003, Act 651, the Industrial Relations Act, 299 of 1965 and the Labour Decree of 1967, (NLCD 157) were the laws governing industrial relations in the country, as well as other laws scattered in various pieces of legislation.

During this time, industrial relations matters and disputes settlement were the preserve of the Ministry of Labour which did this through its Labour Department headed by the Chief Labour Officer. The process of consultation on the development of a new national labour law started in 1995.

The Labour Act 651 (2003) was passed with a mission to develop and sustain a peaceful and harmonious industrial relations environment through the use of effective dispute resolution practices, promotion of co-operation among the labour market players and mutual respect for their rights and responsibilities.

He observed that if workers cannot see their way through when there is a problem then they could resort to any means which would not augur well for industrial harmonization.

Mr. Koomson cited Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa as some of the African countries that have integrated the labour courts with the judicial system.

The Secretary-General of Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Kofi Asamoah at the eighth quadrennial delegates' congress of the TUC in Kumasi said the NLC has largely proved unable to live up to the expectations of the working population.

"The real danger is that should working people loose confidence in the commission, the whole edifice of the Labour Act would crumble."

He suggested that steps should be taken to address the main challenges that emerged ever since the Labour Act came into force.

He said although sections of the Labour Act make provisions for the establishment of regional and district committees of the NLC, it only operates from its headquarters in Accra in responding to labour disputes across the country.

He called on the government as a matter of urgency to provide the commission with adequate resources for the setting up of regional committees of the commission.