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1. Parts I and II of the Convention. Improvement of standards of living. The Committee notes the Government’s report, received in October 2005, containing information on the implementation of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS), which aims at developing infrastructures, modernizing agriculture, focusing mostly on rural development, and increasing the funds assigned to education and health. It notes with interest the lowering of the lending interest rates in 2005, from 35 to 15 per cent, which encourages the creation of small and medium enterprises. The Government indicates that it is implementing a soft credit scheme to boost the creation of small and medium enterprises, with no need to provide collateral and with lower interest rates. The Committee notes that it is the National Tripartite Committee that determines the national daily minimum wage and ensures, together with collective bargaining, a minimum standard of living, taking into account essential family needs (Article 5 of the Convention). It further notes the Presidential Special Initiative that encourages farmers to stay in rural areas by implementing low-cost housing and by constructing roads in cocoa and agricultural regions. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture is also allocating funds for the cultivation and processing of sunflowers for export to create more employment (Article 3). The Committee asks the Government to continue providing information in its next report on the measures taken to ensure that the general principles and basic aims of the Convention remain a key component of its poverty reduction strategy.

2. Part IV. Remuneration of workers. In relation to its previous comments, the Committee notes with interest the adoption of the Labour Act of 2003 and, more particularly, section 67, which provides that the employer must pay the whole of the salary, wages and allowances to the worker in legal tender, which obligation has to be stated in the working contract, in conformity with Article 11, paragraphs 2, 3 and 8(a) of the Convention. It also notes section 71 of the Labour Act, which prohibits the employer to coerce the worker to make use of the store or service, and section 69 of the Labour Act that stipulates that an employer shall not make deduction in anticipation of the regular period of payment of remuneration, in conformity with Article 11, paragraphs 5, 8(b) and (c), of the Convention, respectively. The Convention further requires that necessary measures have to be taken to ensure the proper payment of all wages earned and stipulates in Article 11, paragraph 1, that the employer shall be required to keep registers of wage payments. The Committee therefore asks the Government to indicate, in its next report, what measures are envisaged or taken to ensure the proper payment of the workers, namely ones ensuring that the payment of remuneration is done on a regular basis so as to lessen the likelihood of indebtedness among the workers (Article 11, paragraph 6). It would also be grateful if the Government would indicate the measures in place or envisaged to prohibit the replacement of money payment by alcoholic beverage and to ensure that food, lodging and other essential supplies and services provided which from part of the remuneration are adequate (Article 11, paragraphs 4 and 7).

3. Advances on wages. The Committee notes that section 70(b) of the Labour Act allows the employer to make deductions on any financial facility he advanced to the worker at the written request of the worker, or which is guaranteed by the employer to the worker. The Committee asks the Government to provide further information on the maximum amount of repayment of advances authorized, as well as on the limit of advances made to a worker in consideration of his taking up employment, as required by Article 12, paragraphs 2 and 3.