Expert proposes solution to labour conflicts

An industrial relations expert is advocating a radical transformation in the management of employees.

A Lecturer at the Institute of Human Resource Managers and Practitioners, Mr Ben Jones Agbai, says a more proactive approach to labour related issues where the workforce is regularly engaged for its needs to be identified and discussed, would present a more peaceful environment for productivity.

Speaking to Joy News, he says his conclusions stem from his study of the labour front and experience garnered in his 20-year hands on practice in industry working for a blue-chip company in Ghana.

Mr Agbai said the present chaos on the labour front could be largely avoided if human resource managers take his proposal seriously.

“This kind of environment deters investors from coming to Ghana because if you set up an organisation and for several weeks and months in a year you are locked up in labour disputes, the organisation is stressed up so you cannot expect any productivity from workers. Besides, you can not operate an organisation like it is a battle front…it is a place where we want to tap the productive energies of employees so that they can give out the best in them. But the way I see it now I do not think things are like that and it is worrying to me,” he said.

Mr Agbai said managers should practice what he termed the “front end approach” whose interventions prevent conflict from erupting at the work place.