Minister urges Physically disabled workers to insist on their rights
Dr Joshua Makubu, the Oti Regional Minister, has entreated physically disabled workers to always insist on their rights in their workplaces as guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution.
He said they should not allow anyone to undermine their competencies due to their physical conditions but stand firm to protect their rights and dignity.
Speaking as the guest speaker at the Fourth Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the Ghana Union of Physically Disabled Workers in Kumasi, he entreated members to overcome a lack of confidence and go about their work without expecting favours from their co-workers.
They should also learn to speak up when their rights were being infringed upon by others, he said.
He challenged persons with disability in privileged positions to live up to expectations to prove that they occupied those positions on merit but not on humanitarian grounds.
Dr Makubu bemoaned the lack of legislation to protect persons with disability in workplaces by successive governments, a situation he noted required urgent steps to address.
He also indicated that workplace policies were normally designed by people who did not know anything about disability hence such policies mostly did not cater for the needs of physically challenged workers.
He expressed concern about how most persons with disability were denied jobs not because they lacked the capacity to perform but because of their conditions.
Mr Simon Osei Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister said as part of efforts by the government to build an inclusive society, it had introduced several policy interventions aimed at creating opportunities for persons living with disability to improve their living conditions.
This, he said, was in line with the key principles of the Sustainable Development Goal Four which sought to reduce the global challenges of inequality for all people in society.
He noted that notwithstanding the conscious efforts of past and present governments to integrate persons with disability into our society through various interventions, much more needed to be done to improve the lives of the disabled community.
The Regional Minister spoke against certain customs which were not only inhumane but also inimical to the development of persons with disability, stressing the need for Ghanaians to desist from all forms of discrimination against persons with disability.