Work Related Rest-An Employer’s Favour or Employee’s Right? A Perspective of Ghana’s Legal Regime

Abstract

Work related rest is highly ignored by employers especially in Ghana’s private corporate sector. In a highly competitive job market and scarce job opportunities, employers tend to perceive jobs as favour being made to employees. This perception tends to influence employers to deprive employees of their necessary work-related rest breaks rightfully due them. Such actions by these employers in most cases seem uncontested by employees since they are not privy to their rights to work related rest or tend to apprehend fear that they might lose their jobs in a bid to agitate for their legal rights to rest breaks. Alternatively, an employer may not restrict an employee’s right to rest breaks but rather, employees may tend to ignore their rights to rest especially in the form of annual leave for want of excessive financial gain. This paper highlights provisions on work related rest from Ghana’s Labour Act,2003 (ACT 651) which is a domestic law drawn from the International Labour Organization. The manuscript advances practicality of the sections on rest breaks highlighted by the Labour Act of Ghana by introducing both Ghanaian and Common law cases on rights and obligations of employers and employees in relation to rest breaks in Ghana.