More workers to go home

The retrenchment exercises that have characterized activities of some organisations in the country could be replicated in other state institutions, BUSINESS GUIDE newspaper reports.

Information chanced upon by the paper indicates that staff of one of Ghana’s top banking institutions and a leading firm that operates an investment and pension scheme, could be the next to be affected by the threats of this unfortunate development.

The paper said management of these two institutions are grappling with issues such as inability to make profits, inefficiency, over-staffing due to a lot of over-aged workers and the need to rejuvenate their workforce with young graduates to turn around their fortunes.

The investment company owns major amounts of stocks in Ghana’s principal companies and plays an important role in Ghana’s economy. Its total indebtedness stood at GH¢215,460,659.19 as at July 2009. In the case of the bank, it is prominent and has wide networked branches.

Reacting to this news, an executive of a subsidiary group under the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) who pleaded anonymity, called on management of organisations that have considered laying off some of their staff to ensure that they follow due process to avert any unforeseen agitations.

Citing Vodafone Ghana’s recent case, he said it is always proper that management of organisations resort to meeting workers at the Standing Joint Negotiation Committee level for an amicable settlement of the workers to be affected.

The National Labour Commission (NLC) recently asked management of Vodafone to suspend its compulsory redundancy exercise until further notice following a complaint lodged against the latter by the Communications Workers Union.

The union alleged that management of Vodafone, instead of meeting them at the Standing Joint Negotiation Committee level, had resorted to engaging workers at consultative meetings.

According to the union, Act 651, Act 102 of the Labour Act does not have anything like a consultative meeting.

The retrenchment of the 950 Vodafone Ghana staff could still go ahead if management and the union settle the matter amicably before the end of this month.