GOVERNEMNT URGED TO IMPLEMENT EMPLOYMENT EQUITY PLAN

The National Council of Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) has called on the government to implement the Employment Equity Policy (EEP) for transformative disability inclusion. The (EEP) is a document designed under the Persons with Disability Act 2006 (Act 715) to address high unemployment situation among the Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in Ghana. The policy seeks to promote equal opportunities; inclusion and fair treatment in terms of employment through the elimination of discrimination and implementation of affirmative measures to reduce the disadvantages in employment experience by vulnerable groups. The Executive Director of PPAG, Madam Abena Adubea Amoah, addressing participants said, the Disability Act enjoins every employee, whether in the private or public sector, to employ PWDs once they have the capacity, saying sensitization was very important in the implementation of the policy as it would provide the needed impetus to scale it up. The Executive Secretary of NCPD, Madam Esther Akua Gyemfi, in a speech read on her behalf by the Acting National Coordinator for the Regional Directorate of NCPD, Mr. Joshua Arddy, said that would ensure equitable representation of PWDs in all occupational categories and levels in the workforce. Madam Gyemfi made the call during a stakeholders’ engagement organized by the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) in collaboration with the NCPD and Ministry of Employment and Labor Relation (MELP) on the draft of the EEP in Accra.
The engagement, organized under the Promoting Equal Rights for Women and Girls with Disabilities (PERD) Project funded by the Dutch Embassy in Ghana, aimed to review the EEP document to be submitted to the MELR to facilitate the process for adoption by the government to address employment challenges among PWDs in the country. Madam Gyemfi said research had shown that the employment rate for PWDs in Ghana was very low as compared to developing countries despite successive governments’ interventions. “This is a step which Ghana has taken to ensure that we mainstream PWDs issues into national development, hence trying to ensure employment rate or PWDs increase”, She added.
She said the policy applied to all companies set up under sections 2 and 33 of the Company’s Act 2019 (Act 992) and the Public Service of Ghana as specified in Article 190 of the constitution, as well as to Public Corporations and Civil Society Organizations. The policy will require companies, ministries, departments, and agencies to inform management and employees of the policy, obtain the commitment and active support of all managers in order to ensure successful implementation and maintain all records.