Ken Ofori Atta
Ex-employees of erstwhile UT and Capital Banks have welcomed the assurance by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta that the exit pay will be paid before Christmas this year.
The minister gave the assurance in an interview with Kwame Sefa-Kayi on Peace Fm, an Accra-based radio station on Friday.
“Over the past 15 months, we, the staff of the affected banks, have been living in despondency; some of our colleagues are bedridden and others have lost their lives. We have written petitions to His Excellency the President, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), among others. We have also engaged in various media engagements and taken other initiatives to highlight our plight. The assurance by the Minister of Finance is therefore a welcome relief, and we are hopeful that the exit pay will be paid as indicated to help alleviate our financial distress. Once again, we express our appreciation to the media for giving us the platform to air our grievances.”
Background
On 14th August, 2017, ex-employees of the defunct UT and Capital Banks, were hit with the shocking news that in line with Section 123 of the Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930), Bank of Ghana (BoG), had revoked the licences of the respective banks due to severe impairment of capital, and had appointed Messrs Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah, both Directors of PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana Limited, as Joint Receivers for the purpose of winding down the affairs of the two banks.
As a result of the receivership, the Joint Receivers terminated the contracts of staff, numbering about 1,200.
On 19th September, 2017 the employees engaged Union of Commerce, Industry and Finance (UNICOF) to negotiate an exit pay on behalf of the ex-workers.
On 13th November, 2017, negotiations were held with the Joint Receivers, and as per the Joint Receivers’ letter dated 15th January, 2018, an exit pay was agreed for all ex-staff.
However, 14 months after the liquidation, staff entitlements remain unpaid.
On 9th October, 2018, the Joint Receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers (Ghana) announced in a statement that it had realized over GH¢400million through sale of assets of the defunct banks and recovery efforts to help clear the liabilities of the banks.
The employees called for the exit pay to be paid since it was just about 10 per cent of the amount recovered to help alleviate their plight.
On 16th November, 2018 the Minister of Finance gave the assurance that the exit pay will be paid before 25th December, 2018.