George Sipa Yankey
About 45 workers of the Ghana National Gas Company at Atuabo in the Western Region have been sacked for purportedly protesting against poor conditions of service.
According to management of the company, the dismissed workers allegedly misconducted themselves during the protest.
It would be recalled that Ghanaian workers of the Gas Processing Plant took to the streets about a month ago to protest against unfavourable working conditions.
The workers, who are part of the local union of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Union (GTPCWU), called on the management of Ghana Gas to provide them with favourable conditions because of the risk involved in their job.
However, Head of Corporate Communication at Ghana Gas, Alfred Ogbarmey, explained that the actions of the workers were flawed since their concerns had already been addressed.
The protest culminated in series of meetings between the Ministry of Employment and Ghana Gas Company over the fate of the workers.
BUSINESS GUIDE gathered that the appointments of 13 workers have been terminated while 32 others have been suspended for taking part in the protest.
When the paper contacted one Sumaila Mahama, a worker in the company, he confirmed the dismissal of the workers but declined to comment further.
General Secretary of the GTPCWU Fuseini Iddrisuis expressed shock over the decision of management of the Gas Company.
He told journalists that the union had petitioned the Board Chairman of Ghana Gas over the dismissal and suspension of the workers and the need for management to rescind its decision.
He noted that after the protest of the workers last month over the poor conditions of service, a team was instituted to probe the incident and tasked to ensure that nobody was dismissed.
He noted that the report of the investigative team was to be submitted to the Minister of Trade, Haruna Iddrisu before any action could be taken.
According to the union secretary, ‘The decision by the management was taken without information to the National Union as social partners in industrial relations.”
Mr Iddrisu indicated that the decision was against the consensus reached at a meeting with the Employment and Labour Relations Ministry on September 14, 2016.
“The management was warned never to dismiss anybody but to our surprise it went ahead with the dismissals and suspensions.”
“We think that management has done this without the consent of the other parties like the workers’ union and government represented by the Employment and Labour Relations Minister,” Mr Iddrisu asserted.
He stated that “the Union will advise itself if management of Ghana Gas fails to act on its petition calling for the reinstatement of the sacked members.
“Honestly, we are thinking that once we have petitioned the Board Chairman of Ghana Gas, we expect that by Wednesday he would have intervened.”
But if nothing is done by that time, we will meet to determine the next line of action,” he stressed.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi