Boycott E-zwich registration - Public sector workers told

The leadership of the 12 labour unions has asked public sector workers in the country to boycott the process by the government to enroll them onto the electronic payment platform, E-Zwich.

Chairman of the unions who form the Forum, Dr. Isaac Bampoe Addo, warned that public sector workers who voluntarily register to be placed on the platform do so at their own risk.

The government in a bid to rid the system of payroll fraud introduced the payment plan, consequent to which a directive was issued to all public servants to obtain e-zwich cards by May 31 or risk having their salaries suspended.

But the government has since early May announced suspension of the new payment system, which is expected to keep 10 per cent of the employee's salary on the e-zwich platform, with 90 per cent going into the workers account.

The suspension was to allow for further consultation with stakeholders on the system before its implementation

However, the leadership of the unions say they have cited documents from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department indicating the e-zwich registration should resume from June.

This has rather angered the unions who are asking their members boycott of the registration exercise.

"After our first meeting, we have not had any meeting with any of the stakeholders. We thought we were going to discuss issues but it’s not happening so we are advising our members appropriately to totally boycott the exercise," Dr Bampoe Addo told 3FM Wednesday.

He said they would get their members who have already been placed on the platform to withdraw

Dr Bampoe Addo suggested CAGD is not showing good faith in terms of the agreement reached at the meeting at which the suspension of the new payment system was announced.

"We don’t think it’s in our favour, so nationwide, we have called on all our members to totally boycott it," he said.

"It’s our money, not for the government, so we must determine where it goes," he added, describing the whole system as a failure.

He claimed a letter from the managers of the E-Zwich platform dated November, 11, 2014 and signed by the CEO, Archie Hesse described the E-zwich registration as a failure.