Mills addresses mine workers

Tarkwa (Western Region) 22 April 

Vice President John Evans Atta-Mills on Wednesday said the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission is reviewing proposals for tariff increase from the Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation (GWSC).

Addressing the opening session of the seventh quadrennial delegates' conference of Mine Workers Union at Tarkwa, he said the cost of production in the mines has gone up with the "justifiable increase" in electricity tariffs.

In general the prices of things are going up in line with the new paradigm of paying economic rates for services, Professor Atta-Mills said. Escalating mining cost is a worldwide phenomenon, and the impact of it is seen in the exit of Barnex from Prestea and its take-over by Prestea Gold Resources established by the mine workers.

Professor Atta-Mills said there is the possibility of the closure of some more mines if the downward trend of their operations continues.

Mines must adjust their operating plans to accommodate these difficulties in the short term, but the only way to survive into the next millennium and continue to make profits is for the mines to undertake the restructuring that is being done elsewhere under similar circumstances.

Professor Atta-Mills said this reshaping of the industry is and would continue to take the form of employing state of the art technology to improve productivity and cut costs, as well as improving labour's contribution and labour-management relations.

He urged the mines to enhance their management through computers and state-of-the art technology, among other measures.

Professor Atta-Mills urged the management of the mines to cut production costs to the barest minimum, saying overly high labour cost should be avoided, and productivity markedly improved by changing inefficient working practices.

The management of the mines should tackle the labour cost problem as is being done elsewhere by reducing the number of employees through increased use of contract labour, the introduction of labour-saving technology, flexible job classification systems and fair lay-off where they are found to be unavoidable.

Mr Robert Cole, general secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU), mentioned schemes to address the "unnecessary disparities and inequalities between expatriates and Ghanaian staff in terms of remuneration and other conditions of service" as one of the union's proposition for moving the industry forward.

The union is of the opinion that the efficient management of human and material resources is what should be the way forward and not redundancies or mine closure.

Mr Cole renewed calls to the government to ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 176, which seeks to promote occupational health and safety in the mines and enact the necessary laws to conform to the convention.

The union is calling on the management of the various mining-related companies to begin serious thinking about putting in place a comprehensive retirement scheme for their employees to supplement the SSNIT pension.

Mr Cole urged the government to take the union's proposals on alternative job creation in mining communities seriously.

The poor performance of the Ghana Railway Corporation (GRC) is affecting bulk mining companies like the Ghana Manganese and Ghana Bauxite and that if nothing is done about it, these two companies may not be able to survive.

Mr Cole said the routine escalation in electricity tariffs is becoming a growing concern and added that some internal arrangement must be explored in an attempt to mitigate the burden on mining companies.

Mrs Esther Lily Nkansah, Western Regional Minister, expressed the hope that discussions at the conference would be directed towards the creation of peace and harmony at the industrial front.