Ex-AngloGold Ashanti workers demand severance package

Ex-workers of AngloGold Ashanti Ghana, Obuasi Mine, who were retrenched in 2013 and 2014, have refuted claims by the management that it has paid all outstanding compensation due them.

They have also expressed shock at the company’s denial that it owed them any money.

The self-professed “2013-2014 dislocated workers’ group of the company”, the group explained that the management had issued a statement in July this year claiming that the company had paid all entitlements due them.

Addressing a press conference in Accra last Wednesday, September 4, the leader and spokesperson of the group, Mr Alex Frimpong, said they were pursuing legal means and other forms of pressure to get their former employers to honour their obligation.

He said due to the company’s denial and false claims of paying them their money, they had engaged the services of some labour consultants to help them claim their full retrenchment packages.

“Our consultants shared the unprecedented retrenchment agreement document with AngloGold, but they denied knowledge of it and claimed the signatures were false,” he said.

Company

Anglogold Ashanti Ghana, in July this year, denied owing any compensation to the group which on July 22, began picketing at the company’s head office in Accra.

Members of the group explained that their demonstration was to press home demands for the payment of the remainder of their severance packages, and accused the management of refusing to honour a commitment to pay them off as agreed in an “Unprecedented Negotiation Agreement”.

Having come all the way from Obuasi to demonstrate in Accra, they vowed to stay on with the demonstration until they heard favourably from the management.

The company, in a statement, said “all entitlements due the retrenched employees were fully paid in accordance with the Collective Agreement and all applicable laws”.

Agreement

The company’s ex-workers, however, said through the consultants, they had filed a petition with the Chief Labour Officer, and in a meeting, the Chief Labour Officer, on May 30, admitted that the signature on the alleged forged agreement was his.

He thus expressed disappointment at the claims made by the management of having no knowledge of the agreement.

“Following the Chief Labour Officer’s admission that his signature on the Unprecedented Retrenchment Agreement was authentic, our consultants in June 2019 requested that the Chief Executive Officer of AngloGold in South Africa should intervene and get our money paid to us, but as of today, our consultants have not received any response nor an acknowledgement of the receipt of our letter,” he said.

The leader of the aggrieved former workers indicated that they had instructed their consultants to engage the appropriate authority to have the matter settled amicably through an appropriate audit and verification.

Secretary General

The group called on the Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah, who, during the 2018 May Day parade, made reference to the poor employment arrangement made by the company, to intervene in the matter.

“This is the time we expect concrete action from the TUC which has benefited from our dues for many years,” he said.