The Ghana Employers Association (GEA), has initiated an advocacy calling for productivity to be projected to the fore of the national discourse.
They believe productivity in Ghana was an area that did not receive much attention compared to inflation, leading to inadequate data to aid further research.
Mr Eugene Abraham, the Head of Research at the Ghana Employers Association, who was speaking at a tripartite workshop in Accra on Tuesday, said productivity was what was needed to ensure the expansion of businesses and to create the needed jobs for Ghanaians to ensure the socio-economic development of the country.
The GEA, he said, believed that focusing on boosting productivity at all levels of businesses and organisations, was the way to go, if Ghana wanted to attain the expected development as the Asian tigers had.
Mr Abraham said workshop which was on the theme: “Productivity: Awareness Creation, Promotion and Action Plan,” would engage the participants including members of the Association, labour institutions and regulators, in discussions on ways to maneuver the factors leading to improvement in output of employees and businesses.
The platform would also be an opportunity to deliberate and share knowledge on the concept of productivity and its importance in the national economic environment.
Mr Abraham however, referred to the Labour Act 2003 Act 651, Section 98, which required that during wage or Collective Bargaining negotiations, measures or principles of productivity should be included in those activities, but said the absence of a framework in place to support this law, signified the defeat of the provision itself.
The programme, he said was to initiate discussions on how to start developing the collective principles for the benefit of both employers and employees in their negotiations for wages and Collective Bargaining Agreements.
It would also ensure that the workplace was free, and provide all that was needed, for improving productivity which would ultimately impact on salaries, pensions, and sustainability of government taxes, he explained.
He stated that productivity required strategies to expands the “cake,” to ensure equal benefits by both employers and their employees, and that was why the GEA in collaboration with the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise was holding the workshop with the social partners in Ghana, to be able to factor this important issue into the negotiations in their workplaces and in development policies.
Dr Theophilus Adomako, the Director, Consultancy Directorate of the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), who was also the consultant for the workshop, said it was welcoming that all the partners centered their arguments on productivity without it which companies and the nation would suffer.
He explained that the world of business was funded on the “create and share ideology,” hence for an organization to function properly, its management must create the needed environment for creation to take place, and also ensure that the benefits were shared based on the proportion and responsibilities and contribution of stakeholders to the organization.
Dr Adomako noted that once the employees were assured that they would benefit equally from their labour, they would be motivated to work hard for a better outcome.
GNA