Former Casual Workers Of AGC Demonstrate

About 300 former casual employees of Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) on Tuesday embarked on a demonstration in Accra to press home their demands for compensation from the Company. The workers claimed that AGC sacked them without any entitlements even though some of them had worked as casual workers for between four and 20 years.

Ghana(quote)s Labour laws demand that the status of a casual who works for more than six months changes automatically to a permanent one.

Some of the placards they were carrying read "AGC not above the law", "Gold cannot be exchanged for our fundamental human rights", "Let justice flow like River Volta," and "President Kufuor save us now." The workers said they were determined to march to the Castle to meet the President on their plight.

Mr Yaw Ofori, a casual labourer who worked for four years at the company, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that they were laid off in streams between 1998 and 2000. But the management of AGC has not paid them anything as compensation or entitlement.

He said through a similar demonstration last year Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister for Presidential Affairs, assured them that their grievances would be addressed but they are yet to hear from him. "The authorities at AGC are behaving as gods above the law," Mr Ofori said. He added that the Company has refused to attend meetings organised by the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment for the issue to be resolved.

"We want the President to act now to uphold the constitution." The Ministry of Manpower Development and Planning on Monday said that arbitration proceedings initiated between ex-casual or contract workers of Ashanti Goldfields Company and the management are still continuing.