Mr Yaw Kwakwa
MANAGEMENT OF the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) has outlined a 6-month roadmap aimed at addressing all statutory and welfare deductions of its staff.
Beginning from August, 2021, all welfare and statutory deductions would be settled, the company has resolved.
The welfare deductions include departmental welfare, senior staff, trade associations and credit associations, among others.
Payment of Tier 2 will commence in October 2021 over a period of six months.
Management, in consultation with the Oboshie Sai-Cofie-led board, concluded arrangements for the payment of SSNIT contributions from August 2021 over a period of twelve months. Further to that, PAYE payments will also begin in October, 2021 for a period of twelve months.
The move is expected to bring to an end to the hostility between management and staff of the GACL.
The roadmap was arrived at following management’s meeting with the GACL board, a decision which was subsequently communicated to workers of the airport operator at a staff durbar held on Wednesday.
The divisional union of GACL was present at the durbar.
Managing Director of the GACL, Yaw Kwakwa, said the 6-month roadmap will help restore staff confidence and improve on the working relationship between staff and management.
“I take responsibility of all that is happening at the company. The workers have every right to complain as they are going through hardship. What I don’t condone is to take the law into your hands and attack management members. We’ve worked together for some time now and I know how they feel when certain things are not going on well for them. But management is working very hard to address all their challenges. We are going to stick to our roadmap and I believe that at the end of the day, there will be all smiles,” he noted.
He said GACL’s main challenge was the refinancing of the over $400 million asset-backed corporate loan it took to finance its capital expenditure requirements under two separate components.
The GACL has in recent times been in the news as a result of staff agitations against management of the company over unpaid statutory and welfare deductions.
Available information indicate that prior to the refinancing, GACL had APSC revenue receipts of approximately $21.6 million per quarter and made loan payments of $19.1 million per quarter.
With these figures, management anticipated that with the refinancing, payment would dip to $6.1 million thus providing GACL with extra cash flow of $13 million to support corporate operations.
However, the arrangement was truncated by the COVID-19 pandemic because APSC revenue dropped from $21.6 million to $6.3 million per quarter, a situation which eventually, halted any plans by management to support any likely salary increment because the airport operator lacked the capacity to do so.
“But like I said, we will continue to engage our workers and resolve all outstanding issues,” Mr Kwakwa assured.