Retrenched COCOBOD staff boycott compensation meeting

Workers of COCOBOD who were retrenched in 1993 and 1994 without compensation after government restructured the company today boycotted a validation exercise by COCOBOD in Koforidua.

The aggrieved retrenched workers alleged that COCOBOD has deviated from the agreed requirements and modalities for the validation exercise which could lead to disqualification of many of its members some of whom are deceased but represented by their children and spouses.

The exercise was marred by anger and raining of curses on the officials for allegedly attempting to shortchange them.

The former Workers of COCOBOD numbering about 7000 have been battling COCOBOD for the past 26 years for retrenching them without paying their redundancy and severance packages.

The Supreme Court ruled on behalf of the affected farmers in 2005. COCOBOD later appealed for review but the case was withdrawn for out of court settlement.

The CEO of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahene Adu, reportedly instituted a committee to reach an amicable settlement with the members of the Association of Retrenched Staff of Ghana COCOBOD.

After reaching an agreement with the Association for payment of the packages, it was also agreed for a validation exercise to be conducted. The Validation team on Monday, March 2, 2020, started work at COCOBOD office in Koforidua but events turned chaotic after many members of the Association failed to provide the tall list of documents demanded by the validation team.

The frustrated former staff of COCOBOD mostly aged began to agitate forcing their leadership to call for a total boycott of the exercise.