GBC workers sack directors

Workers of the state broadcaster yesterday embarked on an internal demonstration and in the process locked up the offices of some top management staffers after chasing them out.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that the Ag Director of Finance came to work yesterday morning but reportedly fled but the Director of Human Resource didn’t show up at work. The Director of Corporate Affairs was chased out of her office after which the place was locked up.

Clad in red fabrics, they sang protest songs, the second in a few months, against the board members of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) with whom they have been on a collision course for some time now.

What triggered yesterday’s protest could be the inability of the Minister for Communication to meet the workers as earlier scheduled, for a planned durbar. The minister was said to have failed to show up, angering the workers. They asked the board members to leave the premises – a repeat of a similar action earlier.

Leading the charge were members of the workers union who were said to have earlier visited the office of the Acting Director General yesterday morning to inform her about the planned action.

During the demonstration most of the workers abandoned their duty posts, bringing work to a virtual standstill.

In an earlier protest the workers accused the board members of bad governance and acting in manners not helpful to the growth of the corporation. They had hoisted red bands at the entrance of the corporation. They had at the time suspected the extension of the tenure of the CEO, Albert Don Chebe – something denied by the National Media Commission (NMC) anyway.

The Richard Kwame Asante-led board is particularly targeted by the workers who they insist should pack and leave the premises of the corporation.

They particularly cited the creation of a TV Licence Division which for them was not done properly. Under such a situation, they found it preposterous that a director and staff were going to be appointed for the unit, insisting that the laid down procedure for such creation be followed.

The board has also been accused of violating employment procedures by recruiting directors without clearance from the Finance Ministry – a situation which has led to the persons being paid from the corporation’s internally generated funds. This, the workers have kicked against vehemently.

The workers avoided the camera, fearing what some of them said is possible victimization.