Mr. Ignatius Baffour Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, has called for peaceful industrial relations to ensure that labour focuses on the main mandate for production.

He said stakeholders must work together to reduce disruptions on the labour front.

Mr Baffour Awuah said this during a working visit to Ghana Textiles Limited (GTP) to engage staff and management over recent impasse.

Workers of the GTP on Thursday, February 24 embarked on a demonstration to draw the attention of the Government through the Ministry of Trade and Industry to remove Madam Fatoumata Doro, the Managing Director.

The staff, clad in red, closed the main entrance of the company.

Mr Baffour Awuah, whose visit was also to engage the GTP branch of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), emphasised the government’s commitment towards a peaceful labour front for national development.

The Labour Minister reiterated President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s commitment to building an economy that was not dependent on charity and handouts but an economy that looked past commodities to position our country in the global market.

“We need a peaceful working environment to build a Ghana that looks to her own resources and proper management to engineer social and economic growth in our country,” he said.

Mr Baffor Awuah also appealed to the workers to use the appropriate safety gadgets provided at the workplace to ensure their safety and charged the labour union to be responsible at the workplace.

The Labour Minister expressed concern about three recorded accidents at the workplace last year due to the failure of workers to wear safety gadgets.

He said there’s the need for engagement with the GTP management to ensure industrial peace, adding that the Ministry’s doors were opened to all.

“It is our duty as the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to ensure that, all working environment is peaceful and free from issues that seek to corrupt the working atmosphere,” he said.

Mr Joseph Amosah, GTP Production Manager and Mr. Kwame Ofori Gyau, GTP Human Resource Manager took the minister through some of the departments and units of the company.

GTP is the first indigenous Ghanaian textile brand launched unto the Ghanaian market in January 1966 by the late Osegyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President.

GTP is designed, printed, distributed and marketed by Tex Styles Ghana Limited (TSG), a member of the global Textile giant VLISCO BV headquartered in Helmond, The Netherlands.

GTP has three sister brands – WOODIN which is also designed, produced and sold by TSG; VLISCO which is imported from the parent company in The Netherlands and UNIWAX which is produced in Ivory Coast by another subsidiary of Vlisco BV.