Law Lecturer at the Academic City University, Spencer Kwabena Boateng Mensah has expressed disappointment in the slow pace of the implementation of disability laws in Ghana.
He was consulted on “Thorns”, a GTV primetime documentary by the MCBIRD 2022 Disability Reporter Beatrice Senadju.
According to the United Nations, an approximately 90% of people with disabilities of working age in developing countries are unemployed. This includes Ghana which has 3% of its population being people with disabilities.
The Ghana Disability Act (2006) Act 715 proscribes the exploitation of people with disabilities yet they are continuously exploited and marginalized in the labour market.
The communications law lecturer at ACity cautioned employers to communicate details of jobs to PWDs as a basic right.
“It is up to you the employer to provide a contract. Just like you’ll do for any other person, describe the job the PWD is going to do, the working hours, the time to report, remuneration…and make the environment disability friendly for the PWD,” he remarked.
He empathized that “any form of discrimination is unacceptable and for that matter discrimination against persons with disabilities is equally unacceptable!”
The Labour Act of Ghana (2003) Act 651 also mandates government to establish a public employment center where people with disabilities can register for employment. There is no known data base yet in Ghana that reflects the implementation of Sections 2 and 45 of the Labour Act.
Spencer Kwabena Boateng Mensah is of the view that it is embarrassing to have a labour system that fails to absorb people with disabilities into the labour market.
“So at the work place, if a person with disability is discriminated against, it is embarrassing to all of us as a State, it is embarrassing to us as Ghanaian people to have this happen in this country around this time where other countries are trying their best to eliminate all forms of discrimination against anyone”.
After the closure of tollbooths in Ghana, many people with disabilities who were employed under a government initiative have returned to the state of unemployment and have also lost hope.
“Thorns” documentary showed on the national television on Thursday, April 13, 2023 highlights many barriers to people with disabilities in Ghana and how, regardless, some have shattered the glass ceiling to achieve their dreams.