Workers of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) on Friday held a demonstration at the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Employment and Manpower Development to demand their October salary and speedy resolution of the redundancy negotiation package.
The angry group, numbering about 200, wore red headbands and carried placards with various inscriptions, amidst singing of songs. The group arrived at the Ministry of Energy at 1230 hours to meet Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, the Minister, to whom most of their complaints on the placards were directed.
Some of them read, "Positive or Negative Change, Kan-Dapaah?" Kan-Dapaah where is our October salary?" "Mr President our wives and children are dying of hunger, why?" "Respect the rule of law, use Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to pay us our redundancy package."
When they did not meet the Minister, the group proceeded to the Ministry of Employment and Manpower Development where they channeled their grievances through Mr Joe Donkor, the Deputy Minister. They accused Mr Kan-Dapaah of neglecting the CBA.
Mr. Donkor, after having a closed-door meeting with the leaders of the demonstrators, came to thank those outside for demonstrating peacefully.
He assured them that his Ministry would meet with the various bodies involved on Monday, November 19 to resolve the matter.
Meanwhile, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Energy, on Friday said the government would continue with the arbitration process on the severance awards to workers of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to ensure that the nation was protected in the restructuring of the corporation.
Speaking to newsmen in Accra, Mr Kan-Dapaah said he was surprised that workers of the GNPC embarked upon a demonstration on Friday morning, saying that their union had not properly briefed them about the restructuring exercise being embarked upon by the government.
"We really want to go ahead with the restructuring of GNPC and want early settlement of the issue. It is the Union, which has made it impossible for the restructuring process to go on."
He said GNPC was a bankrupt company that had to pay severance awards that ran into millions of cedis.
The Energy Minister said government was committed to restructuring GNPC to stick to its core business. Various steps had been taken and the workers had pledged their support to the government's decision that the restructuring was necessary.
He said discussions on severance awards for those to be laid off were going on and at their last meeting about four days ago, there was a deadlock and the Union wanted arbitration. A letter was therefore written to the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment with a copy to the Ministry of Energy.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said: "It was a surprise to me that the workers embarked upon the demonstration at the Ministry this morning since the matter is now before an arbitration."
He said the workers demanded that a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed between the management and the Union in July this year should prevail but the government could not allow that CBA to be used because there was no Board of Directors in existence or representative of the Ministry of Energy involved when it was signed.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said under the CBA, severance awards for junior workers should be based on six months salary for each year they had worked while those for senior staff should be based on eight months salary for every year they had worked.
"The laws of the land demand that severance awards should be negotiated. We question the validity of the new CBA signed in July without due regard to the Board of Directors of the Ministry of Energy," he added.
The Minister said GNPC was in a very serious financial condition with many liabilities which government should discharge. It was therefore not appropriate for the workers to demand such monies with the debts facing the company.
He said as part of the restructuring exercise, government agreed to pay the salaries of the workers for July, August and September this year and consider September as the cut-off period but the workers demanded it should be negotiated. This was going on until the deadlock and they demanded arbitration.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said the restructuring being undertaken by GIMPA stipulated that the current workforce of 600 should be reduced to 150.
