Features
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying (Part 2)
The previous article discussed the issue of casual workers scattered all over the country who have been unjustly consigned to the status of “permanently temporary” employees against all conventions of fair employment practice. According to Ghana’s Constitution and the Conventions of the International Labour Organisation, (ILO),which Ghana has ratified, no worker should be deemed to be casual after working continuously for six months but that has remained just a mere rhetoric.
People have worked for periods ranging from 10 to 20 years and are considered and treated casual labourers, an anomaly reported to be more widespread within public health institutions across the country. What is worse, these employees work for chicken feed, despite all their toil, and in conditions far from conducive. Worst of all, the Inspectorate Department of the Ministry of Employment and Labour that should monitor these things and serve justice, appears to be either nonchalant or plainly irrelevant.
In this article, the emphasis is on the abuse of women’s rights in the workplace. I would not talk about sexual harassment because even though it is prevalent, it is so subtle that it has assumed the status of normalcy without being seen for what it really is. Since Adam, some Ghanaian men, especially those in management positions, have seduced their female subordinates and pressurised them to succumb to their advances or face their wrath. Some have yielded out of fear of losing their jobs and have been left scarred for life. Yet, out of shame, and for fear that their story might be repudiated, they keep it under wraps while suffering in silence.
You see, men in Western countries cannot even pass suggestive comments without serious consequences. The Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, lost his very lucrative job because of this. His younger brother, Chris Cuomo, one of the best journalists at CNN, who was found to have attempted to offer some advice to his brother’s staffers on how to wriggle his way out of trouble, also lost his job. The network fired him. In Africa, and for that matter, Ghana, it has become and remained normal and harmless. Consequently, the practice persists unabated, and offenders do not face any sanctions. Who will rescue the perishing? Who will care for the dying?
Another area of abuse concerns maternity leave, that is, the period granted a female worker by law to be absent from work before and after childbirth. Ghana has ratified the ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 1952, (No. 103) and has a legislation that stipulates 12 weeks paid maternity leave which works up to three months. Some groups, including the Ghana Medical Association, have advocated six months.
That is the ideal thing to do but there is a big problem. The elders would tell you:“Ko kompow’annya a, 3na treeee?” which loosely translates to: “If you did not get mere drops, how can you get a flow?” Some employers do not so much as educate their workers on their bill of rights, talk less of paying maternity leave. That is to say, even the mandatory 12 weeks are not given, not to mention doubling the period to six months as has been proposed in some quarters. In fact, some bosses keep beneficiaries in the dark about the requirement of the law and take advantage of their ignorance.
Paid maternity leave must not be allowed to be toyed with. Medical experts explain that conceiving a baby and having one, changes a woman’s body in ways that are hard to predict, making her moody, exhausted, restless, and ultimately depressed, if care is not taken. Unfortunately, employers do not consider the gravity of this concern and factor it into their plan as they design their benefit packages for their female employees if they do it at all.
Apart from the crime such employers are committing by denying women of such rights, they are also losing indirectly as giving that paid maternity leave would afford nursing mothers many benefits which would indirectly inure to the good of their companies by way of higher productivity.
In the first place, it would enable the women to exclusively breastfeed their babies which medical experts recommend as being far healthier and better than tinned infant formula. That would have a positive impact on the health of both mother and baby as it would serve to prevent post-partum depression which is common among women. It is estimated that about one in every eight women is affected.
A healthy mother will not absent herself from work unnecessarily and be in the right frame of mind to take care of her baby. Denying her sufficient time for maternity leave is bad enough, how worse does it get with none at all? Do such employers have any bowels of compassion at all? What do they think of a nursing mother without the benefit of family support leaving her tiny three-month old infant in the care of a stranger at a nursing home when she has not sufficiently bonded with her baby, but still has to resume work?
Some employers think they are even being considerate when they offer you a fraction of the stipulated leave period. They think it is a favour they are doing, especially if the workers are ignorant of their rights. Some are aware of the existence of the provision but do not know the details and so, anything goes.
In some cases, there is ample evidence that the new mother needs additional time to rest due to complications in delivery requiring surgical operation, and, therefore, additional days. But some callous employers deny the woman such medical rest even though the law provides that she should be given two additional weeks to the 12 weeks due her as her normal maternity leave.
What about the requirement that an hour a day should be given the new mother to nurse her baby? I will turn the earlier Akan proverb and say: “Treeeempo antre mu a, na ko ko?” meaning: “If a flow does not suffice, what good would mere drops do?”The boss does not even want to give you the real deal, that is, the 12 weeks maternity leave, how much less an hour a day to nurse your baby? In some instances, some employers have even been so mean as to punish pregnant women with dismissal even though they have genuine reasons for pre-natal and post-natal bed rest. And this is done without recourse to the laid down procedure for termination of employment spelt out in Section 15 of the Labour Act.
What is Parliament championing for women? The empty platitudes must stop. The rhetoric will not help. Last month, the MP for Nadowli-Kaleo, Mr. Anthony Suumah Mwinkaara, brought the attention of parliament to the unfair treatment of people unjustly classified and treated as casual workers even though they have long exceeded the maximum six months tenure stipulated for such staff.
The issue of women’s rights is another problem that this column is placing on the radar for consideration by parliament. It is long overdue for Ghanaian women to be treated with some dignity. Even if the House would not pass legislation to mandate a six-month paid maternity leave, it must pass a law to criminalise refusal to comply with the existing requirement of 12 weeks.
Besides, the House can propose a graduated scheme that provides for a percentage of the regular salary after the first 12 weeks if additional leave days are added. That could be a good compromise before the period may be formally extended to the ideal six months. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying! And remember, mothers cannot wait.
Contact: teepeejubilee@yahoo.co.uk
By Tony Prempeh
Features
The Prophet part 4
Antobam woke up with a terrible headache. He checked the time on his mobile phone, 2:30 am. “What! Where is the money?” He asked aloud. “Where are those girls? Why did I drink so much of that whisky? What were those two girls up to?” He sat up on the bed and noticed a bulge close to the pillow.
He lifted the mattress and picked up the newspaper wrappers with the neatly arranged notes. He saw the neatly written record of the value of the notes. No, those girls are not thieves.
“It was my mistake. If I hadn’t drank myself to sleep they would be here in bed with me, giving me the time of my life. Pretty girls, those two. And so loyal and honest. Tomorrow will be different.”
“I will not drink any whisky, and I will show them that I am a real man. Just then he heard the whispers. Very soon it will be time, they seemed to be saying. This is an important day.”
The gold dealer will bring lots of money. Give him some of the liquid to drink, and we will prepare him. He will do very big business, and he will give you anything you ask for. There will be more miracles and testimonies today.
Antobam smiled to himself. “I am going to be a very rich man in only a few days man. Money, power, and women. Wow! Antobam got to the grounds at 5, but there were quite a number of people waiting.
Mr Kwame Dofu was among them. He greeted them all, and they came around to shake his hand. “My brothers and sisters, I assure you that whatever your problem is, you will not go home without a solution.” Shouts of “Amen” “thank” you Osofo and “you are a true man of God” responded.
“Please take your seats, and start talking to the great one about whatever bothers you. Before the service is over, there will be a solution.” He waved Mr Dofu over, and went with him to the wooden structure that serves as a temporary office.
“My brother, I have done quite a lot of work on the issue you came to see me about. I have prepared a special, powerful package for you. Take this, drink it, and go back to your business. I want to see you in two weeks.”
Beaming with smiles, Mr Dofu drank the foul smelling liquid in two gulps, said a big thank you to Antobam and took his leave. “I believe you, Papa Osofo. And I assure you that I will reward you, big time.”
Just when Osofo Antubam finished with Mr Dofu, Mary and Suzzie went over to him. “Good Morning ladies. I am very sorry about yesterday. I drank too much of the stuff you gave me. Today will be different, I assure you.”
“Don’t worry, Osofo. Since you are now setting things up, our main concern now is to help you to put things in place, and to make you comfortable. We are always there to serve you. This morning, Osofo, we want to go and clean up your place, and prepare something nice for you when you close.
And before coming to church, we will pass by the bank and collect the forms. After you have signed them, the account will be open. You can check the payments anytime and, of course, issue cheques whenever you need money.”
“Suzzie and Mary, I am happy I picked the two of you from the very start. Listen, I will take good care of you, okay? Here is some money. Buy whatever you need for the errands you have mentioned.
And here is the key. Please come back as early as you can. You know I need you here.” The service was very lively. The lively singing of praise songs was followed by one and a half hours of testimonies.
Most of them related to money – big sales, new jobs and overdue debts paid. But there were also testimonies about healing. Barren women had taken seed, and, of course, several men who had lost their bedroom authority had regained them, to the delight of their partners.
As he had promised, Antobam preached for only 30 minutes, exhorting the congregation to attend church regularly, pay their tithes and offerings, and strictly follow his ‘directions’ for securing solutions to their problems.
After another round of praises during which the congregation danced to the floor to drop their offering, he closed the service, grabbed the big bowl which was full to the brim with money, and moved to his desk. A long queue was quickly formed at the desk.
Meanwhile, Mary and Suzzie had gone to give Antobam’s place quite a decent look. A new bedsheet and pillows, a secondhand carpet and four plastic chairs placed in the verandah had done the trick.
They also prepared two fish and chicken stews. After all these, they rushed to the National Savings Bank and collected application forms for opening current and savings accounts.
They joined the service a few minutes before the main session closed. Antobam looked round and saw, to his relief, Mary and Suzzie moving towards him. “Hello ladies. What have you been up to?” “Quite a bit, Osofo. We’ve just collected your drink. Here you are. We’ve made a few changes at your place. I think you will like it. You will also have something nice to eat. Now, here are the forms for the savings and current accounts.
If you will sign them, the bank will open the account. From today, we can pay all monies direct into the account.” ‘How can I thank you, ladies?” “You don’t need to thank us,” Suzzie said. “It is our duty to help a man of God succeed.” “Okay, my ladies, please take the offerings and count them as you did yesterday.
You can add the payments made after the consultations. Will it be possible to pay them into the account today?” “Yes,” Mary said. “The bank closes at four. If we leave here at three, we would be there just in time.”
The two friends started counting, as Osofo Antobam gave his clients his directions for solving their problems. On quite a few occasions he closed his eyes as if he was receiving direction from above on what to do.
But as the fetish priest at the Nana Kofi Broni shrine and the dwarfs had assured him, the solutions would certainly be provided. Having heard the huge testimonies earlier in the day, the clients parted with substantial sums of money in expectation.
By Ekow de Heer
Features
The issue of spiritual father in our churches
A student was supposed to go to school as the natural cause of events should be when universities or schools in general opens but this was not the case in a certain young man’s life.
He decided to postpone his trip because apparently he could not get to meet his pastor, his spiritual father. The question is, should this spiritual father die, will the young man’s life come to an end?
Does it mean in such an instance, he is going to curtail his education? This is a worrying trend in a lot of churches where the pastors use this notion of spiritual father to manipulate members especially the youth.
Some unscrupulous pastors utilise this spiritual father concept to have affairs with gullible young ladies in their churches.
Now with homosexuality gradually making inroads into some of the churches, young men are becoming vulnerable to pastors who have hidden homosexual inclinations.
This spiritual father concept is a Biblical concept that runs through both the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. We see it in 2 Kings 4:12 where Gehazi is serving Elisha and also in the New Testament we see Paul relating to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:2 as a Spiritual Father.
In fact, the concept of spiritual father is a good thing if executed according to the word of God since it helps in guiding the younger ones. However, it becomes problematic when it is being executed by unscrupulous wolves in sheepskins as described by Jesus in Mathew 7:15.
I see it as a way that these unscrupulous so-called men of God maintain their hold on the congregants so they do not question their unchristian actions.
One of the things I have observed since I got born again many years ago is that, any pastor who often insists that members recognise that he is their spiritual father is a warning sign that he is doing some wrong things or is about to indulge in some wrong things.
A parent complained about how his daughter was being influenced by a pastor of the church she attends and how worried he was. I am sure there are many parents out there with stories to tell about how their wards are being made to see their pastors almost like their Jesus.
These pastors have managed to make their congregants so loyal to them and to believe in them so much that it is terrifying, as a parent.
The way things are going, an immediate intervention is required otherwise I am not a prophet of doom but I forsee unfortunate instances where parents burst into church auditoriums and star shooting some Pastors out of frustration and anger.
We cannot look on unconcerned as a society and allow unscrupulous fraudsters using the name of God to create problems for families. My recommendation is for a certain amount of regulation in order to bring some sanity in religious practices.
I agree that ordinarily regulating religious practices makes it a bit restrictive in terms of freedom of worship as enshrined in our constitution but given the way things are going, a bit of regulation will not be out of place.
Disgusting stuff are being attributed to some men of God. There are cases of manipulation of young ladies and sometimes married women by so called men of God and it is bringing Christianity and therefore the name of the Lord into disrepute.
Christianity is gradually losing its attractiveness as a result of the negative reportage resulting from disgusting stuff happening in Christian circles. The way some pastors have been manipulating congregants to take money from them leaves much to be desired to the point where they are convincing some of the youth to give out their phones. May God help us.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
