The position of the Ghana Labour Law on accumulated annual leave: Perspectives from the University for Development Studies

Abstract

Employees of the University for Development Studies have come to the conclusion
that they have no obligation to accumulate their annual leave, and if that was done,
they were most likely to forfeit it if not taken within the calendar year in which the
leave is earned mandatorily. The rule, order, and directive emanate from the Office
of the Registrar, cautioning staff to take their leave within the calendar year or forfeit
it. The approval authorities refuse to grant accumulated leave claim requests with the
assumption that staff have been given enough information on management’s decision
not to approve accumulated leave. As a result, this paper reviews the basic
employment conditions in Ghana with particular reference to annual leave, the
Unified Condition of Service for Unionized Staff of the Public Universities of Ghana,
the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the propositions in the Ghana Labour Act 2003 (Act
651), and the position of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on holidays
with pay. The study revealed that leave administration is the discretion and
responsibility of the employer to decide which month in the year the worker should
take his or her annual leave; the power to defer the worker’s leave from one month to
another; the discretion to grant the worker’s leave in portions; the discretion to defer
the annual leave is limited to and within the 12 calendar months; and under no
circumstance should the employer defer the leave into the subsequent year because
such an act will be contradictory to Section 31 of Act 651; The study therefore
recommends that the employer or employer representative should ensure that every
employee is able to claim his or her annual leave, inclusive of accumulated leave days,
before the end of the calendar year.