The front view of GTP factory.
A total of 130 workers of the Ghana Textile Printing (GTP) Company, leading producer of quality wax prints in the country, have been sacked.
The company, located at the Heavy Industrial Area in Tema, reportedly planned to send home 250 workers but later decided to sack 139 workers of the Wax Department of the company.
Their dismissal would take effect from the first week of December 2016.
The management of GTP communicated its decision to the affected workers on Wednesday in letters.
Some workers were said to have wept uncontrollably when their dismissal letters were given to them at the factory.
The affected workers could not fathom why they should be sacked to join many jobless people in the country at the time when Christmas was approaching.
Seth Mawuenyagah, Union Chairman of the workers, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, explained that management decided to automate the Wax Department of the company which previously operated under a system called “Blocking” so as to adhere to international standards.
According to him, textile companies in the world were moving from manual blocking to roller printing in order to cut cost and production processes.
“All over the world no company is blocking again and management deemed it necessary to invest in automation. As we speak, we have five roller printing machines which will do the same work that manual has been doing.
“As a result of the automation, all the staff at the Wax Department have to go because we also want to be part of the latest technological development,” he said.
He noted that management would provide redundancy packages for all those who have been dismissed.
However, some affected workers, who spoke to the paper on condition of anonymity, noted that their dismissal had nothing to do with automation but the high cost of production.
Management has been complaining about unfair competition, high cost of doing business and excessive taxes or some time, they stated.
Sources at the factory at Heavy Industrial Area in Tema told BUSINESS GUIDE that the workers were sacked because of the inability of the company to sell its products on the Ghanaian market.
The source explained that the influx of cheap wax prints on the Ghanaian market had negatively affected the operations of the company.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema