Debates of 16 Oct 2008

MR. SECOND DEPUTY SPEAKER
PRAYERS 10:35 a.m.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 10:35 a.m.
Mr. Second Deputy Speaker 10:35 a.m.
Hon. Members, correction of Votes and Proceedings of Wednesday, 15th October, 2008. Pages 1, 2 …. 12. [No corrections were made.]
Hon. Members, I have not received any
Statements.
Mr. E. K. D. Adjaho 10:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker,
with your indulgence and the indulgence of the House, I would want to raise an issue of privilege.
Yesterday, while I was in this House a gentleman who described himself as having come from the courts sought to serve me with a writ of summons contrary to article 117 of the Constitution and Standing Order 22.
Mr. Speaker, with your permission, I would quote 10:35 a.m.
“Civil or any criminal process coming from any court or place out of Parliament shall not be served on, or executed in relation to, the Speaker or a Member or the Clerk to Parliament while he is on his way to, attending at or returning from, any proceedings of Parliament.”
Mr. Speaker, this happened in the

presence of the hon. Majority Whip and Member of Parliament for Nkawkaw. The same provision has been repeated in verbatim in Standing Order 22 and therefore, in line with the rules of this House, I will want this matter to be referred to the Privileges Committee as a breach of a privilege of this House.
Mr. Second Deputy Speaker 10:35 a.m.
Thank
you, hon. Member, for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. According to the Standing Orders of the House, this matter is duly referred to the Privileges Committee for consideration and report.
PAPERS 10:35 a.m.
- 10:35 a.m.
BILLS -- CONSIDERATION 10:35 a.m.
STAGE 10:35 a.m.
  • [Resumption of Consideration from 15-10-08]
    • Chairman of the Committee (Nii Adu Daku Mante) 10:35 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, clause 62, subclause (1), line 1, delete “An employee” and insert “A worker”.
    Mr. Speaker, this is for consistency and clarity.
    Mr. E. K. D. Adjaho 10:35 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I
    want the hon. Chairman of the Committee to explain the rationale. We are members of the Committee and that is the difficulty we have. He should explain why we are deleting ‘an employee' and inserting ‘a worker', so that we can go along with him.
    Mr. Second Deputy Speaker 10:35 a.m.
    Hon.
    Chairman of the Committee, it is your duty to convince the House to accept your amendment, so give them reasons why your amendment should be accepted.
    Nii Mante: Mr. Speaker, I thought
    that I stated that it is for consistency. Earlier on in the other parts of the Bill, we have already stated ‘a worker' in the same context and that is the more reason why we are saying that here in clause 62(1), ‘an employee' is not relevant. Instead, it should be ‘a worker', who is entitled to retirement benefits under the Pension Scheme in existence before the commencement of this Act and is aged 55 years or above is exempt from the scheme.
    Mr. Speaker, as I said, this is for consistency.
    Mr. Adjaho 10:35 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I am not
    an expert in this area but what I know is in terms of employer/employee kind of relationship. If you look at what they are trying to do in clause 36, which has been deferred, they are talking about employers association. If you look at other legislations, we normally talk about
    employees. There should be a certain contractual relationship but if it is a worker, a worker can be a worker but an ‘employee' creates a certain contractual relationship. That is why I think that it should be beyond a matter of consistency. What is the practice in the industry?
    Mrs. Gifty Eugenia Kusi 10:45 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, if you look at the interpretation section on page 98 of the Bill, “worker” has been defined but “employee” has not been given the interpretation. “Worker” includes a person who has been employed for salary, manual or otherwise through a contractor. I think the definition of “worker” is explained better here but “employee” is not here; so I think I agree with the hon. Chairman of the Committee.
    Mr. J. B. Aidoo 10:45 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, further to that, if you look at the heading, it reads “employers and workers”. It has been expressively expressed that we are dealing with workers, and therefore, there is nothing wrong with replacing “employee” with “worker” in this amendment.
    Mr. Second Deputy Speaker 10:45 a.m.
    The hon. Chairman of the Committee was talking about consistency, and it appears you have “worker” all through.
    Mr. Adjaho 10:45 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I think with the definition that has been provided by hon. Mrs. Gifty Kusi, that a worker includes an employee, it is clear, so I am all right.
    Question put and amendment agreed to.
    Clause 62 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Clause 63 - Social security number .
    Nii Mante: Mr. Speaker, I beg to

    move, clause 63, subclause (1), line 2, delete “obtain” and insert “be given”.

    Mr. Speaker, it is your Committee's view that the obligation is rather on the Trust to give the social security number to a “worker” and not the other way round.

    Question put and amendment agreed to.

    Clause 63 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.

    Clause 64 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

    Clause 65 -- Mandatory contributions.

    Nii Mante: Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, clause 65, subclause (1), line 1, delete “Subject to sections 3 (1) and (2)”.

    Mr. Speaker, the reason for this amendment is to ensure that the provision is very clear and blends with section 3(1) and 3(2) of this Bill and will therefore read as follows:

    “an employer of an establishment shall remit thirteen and half per centum out of the total contributions of eighteen and half per centum on behalf of the worker to the first tier mandatory Social Security Scheme within fourteen days after the end of each month to the Trust.”

    Mr. Speaker, we believe it should not be subjected to section 3(1) and 3(2).

    Question put and amendment agreed to.

    Nii Mante: Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, clause 65, subclause (8), line 2, delete “second”.

    Mr. Speaker, your Committee believes

    that the word “second” is out of place. So the whole subclause will read as follows: “An employer shall remit the total contribution of eighteen and half per centum” and not “per second per centum”, hence the deletion of the word “second”.
    Mr. Second Deputy Speaker 10:45 a.m.
    Very well, I think it is a question of typographical error.
    Question put and amendment agreed to.
    Nii Mante: Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, clause 65, subclause (9), line 2, delete and insert “determined”.
    Mr. Speaker, your Committee is of the view that the word “prescribed” may give rise to the promulgation of regulations; we think that the intent can be dealt with administratively hence the deletion of the word “prescribed” and the insertion of the word “determined”.
    Question put and amendment agreed to.
    Clause 65 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Clause 66 - Penalty for non-payment of contributions.
    Nii Mante: Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, clause 66, subclause (1), line 2, delete “prescribe” and insert “specified”.
    Mr. Speaker, the reason is similar to what I stated in the previous clause.
    Question put and amendment agreed to.
    Clause 66 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Clause 67 - Multiple-employer. Nii Mante: Mr. Speaker, I beg to
    move, clause 67, line 2, after “responsible”
    delete all words and insert “for only that employer's obligation under this Act”.
    Mr. Speaker, we are placing the obligation rather on the employer and not vice versa; that is the new amendment to this clause.
    Question put and amendment agreed to.
    Clause 67 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:55 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, the

    Mr. Speaker, let me go over what I
    Mr. Second Deputy Speaker 10:55 a.m.
    Hold
    your breath, hon. Member. I have not heard that “these few amendments” have been defined and I would think, getting to clause 70 would be fair enough. So we would go on and when we get to clause 70, I would oblige the sentiment.
    Clause 68 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Dr. A. A. Osei 10:55 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, the clause
    69 in particular is a bit treacherous so I want to second the proposal of my hon. Senior Colleague so that we end it here. These are the parts that we need to do some consultations. So I want to crave your indulgence that we accept my hon. Senior Colleague's motion.
    Mr. Second Deputy Speaker 10:55 a.m.
    I did
    not get your reason. Can you make it very clear?
    Dr. Osei 10:55 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, we are about
    Mr. First Deputy Speaker 10:55 a.m.
    But they
    are not treacherous?
    Dr. Osei 10:55 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, potentially
    they could be if enough consultation is not done.
    Mr. Second Deputy Speaker 10:55 a.m.
    I would
    not accept the word “treacherous”. If you say they are difficult, I would accept that.
    Dr. Osei 10:55 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I withdraw
    the word “treacherous”. These clauses require deeper consultations and so with that in mind, I crave your indulgence that we accept my hon. Senior Colleague's motion to adjourn proceedings.
    Mr. K. A. Okerchiri 10:55 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker,
    I am at ibidem with him. I support the motion.
    Mr. Second Deputy Speaker 10:55 a.m.
    Then
    you can move the motion.
    Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:55 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, in
    view of the bipartisan decision that this House adjourn to enable hon. Members
    who have not filed their nominations yet to go and file, I hereby beg to move that this House do now adjourn till next week Monday.
    Mr. Okerchiri 10:55 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I wish
    Mr. Second Deputy Speaker 10:55 a.m.
    Order!
    Order! Hon. Members, it appears you needed to confer and come clean on what you want us to do, taking into consideration the Legislative Instruments (L. I.s) that have been laid. So you should

    get your motions cleaned up and let the Chair know what to decide.
    Mr. Okerchiri 10:55 a.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I think
    that we may adjourn subject to our coming tomorrow. We have to come tomorrow.
    Question put and motion agreed to.
    ADJOURNMENT 10:55 a.m.