ECG workers demand severance package in concession agreement

The Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged the government to engage workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on their severance packages in the ECG concession.

According to the union, although the process towards the implementation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Second Compact was proceeding, the Ministry of Energy had not provided the appropriate forum to discuss issues affecting the staff under the private sector participation in the ECG.

The union said although it was not against the compact, it objected to the option of a concession as the model to turn the fortunes of the company around.

On Tuesday, the union executives of the ECG in Accra picketed outside the premises of the TUC to demand their severance package in the ECG concession agreement.

They contended that since the government was going ahead with the ECG concession, it was within the labour laws for the staff to be compensated, hence the need for discussions on their severance package.

Legal termination of employment relations

In a statement, the General Secretary of the PUWU, Mr Michael Adumatta Nyantakyi, said although the process towards the implementation of the compact was proceeding, the government was not giving due attention to the concerns expressed by the staff.

 “The labour law stipulates that where an arrangement or amalgamation causes severance of the legal relationship of workers and employer as it existed immediately before the close-down, arrangement or amalgamation, the worker is entitled to be paid by the employer, compensation referred to as redundancy pay,” he stated.

However, the attitude of the Ministry of Energy and the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) towards the union and the concerns of the staff, he said, had been “very snobbish and patronising”.

Unfortunately, he said, the Ministry of Energy had failed and/or refused to meet with PUWU to discuss the necessary measures that should be adopted to avert or minimise the effects of the planned restructuring.

“In the absence of any engagement with the PUWU, we are led to only one conclusion, and that is, the government intends to railroad the concession arrangement through without due regard for the interest of the workers of the ECG,” he stated.

Objection to concession

Mr Nyantakyi stressed that the union had consistently maintained that the solutions to the challenges facing ECG were within the domain of the government, and it was a lazy and undisciplined approach to think that it was only through private sector participation that the fortunes of the ECG could be turned around.

The failure of successive governments to appoint competent and dynamic leadership who would be given the free hand to operate, he said, had been one of the major obstacles to the progress of the company.

The general secretary further indicated that policy makers needed to take into consideration the fact that distribution of energy was one key sector that could be turned around easily to bring in more revenue to the state directly.

Background

Ghana and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the United States signed the second compact worth $498 million in October 2016 to improve the performance of the power sector.

The government was expected to allow about 80 per cent private sector control in ECG for the country to benefit from a cash injection of about one billion US dollars over a period of five years.

Staff of the ECG protested the deal over possible retrenchment and the government not meeting the terms of the agreement.