GAFCO Lays Off 149 Workers

The Ghana Agro-Food Company Limited (GAFCO), has laid off 149 workers under very strange circumstances.

A memorandum of understanding signed by the Management of the company and for the workers by the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) simply says that the workers have been ?temporarily laid off.?

It said they ?will be given the first option of employment as the fortunes of the company improve.? The Memorandum of Understanding was witnessed by Mr Yaw Barimah, Minister of Manpower Development and Employment? and Mrs Rose Karikari Anang, Executive Director of the Ghana Employers Association. Under the terms of the lay-off, 50 per cent of their Provident Fund ?plus whatever interest the banks would have paid on the Fund will be paid to the 149 affected workers.

?The remaining 50 per cent of the Provident Fund will be credited to the workers as and when they would have been re-employed after which each worker will be expected to discharge any loan obligation to the company.

Under the terms of this agreement, the workers are no longer entitled to medical care, remuneration and other benefits.

Indeed, there is not such thing as temporal lay-off, in the Collective Bargaining Agreement of the company. Some of the workers who spoke to newsmen said it was not clear what was meant by improvements in the fortunes of the company. He said under the circumstances; their temporal lay-off could turn into dismissal since the ?fortunes of the company? have not been properly defined and could take a century to achieve.