GPHA workers apprehensive over jobs

Despite several assurances, workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) remain apprehensive about possible job losses after Meridian Ports Services (MPS) began operations under a 35-year agreement.

The Director General of the GPHA, Mr Michael Luguje, has consequently assured the workers that no one will be laid off as MPS takes charge of container receipts at the ports.

He has instead tasked the workers to be rest assured that they will get the required results from the negotiations which seeks to get the authority to retain some level of container business.

“I want you as workers to trust that the process ongoing will produce fruitful results, and nobody will receive a redundancy letter because there is goodwill and there is no need to be alarmed since the process has not been exhausted,” Mr Luguje stated.

The assurances followed a threat of a sit-down strike by the GPHA workers last Monday after the MPS retained all import boxes (containers), including refrigerated (reefer) imports, on the orders of the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

As of Sunday, July 14, the GPHA had received only 30 containers from the new terminal instead of 700 containers that the workers said were due the company thereby heightening fears of job losses.
 
Tensions

Monday’s agitations were partly attributed to a letter written by Mr Luguje dated June 25, 2019 to all shipping lines operating at the port directing that 90 per cent of applicable port tariffs be paid to MPS, with the GPHA due the remaining 10 per cent.

The leadership of the workers union were said to have viewed the letter as a move on the part of their management to back out of the renegotiations, and on Sunday, June 14, communicated to the workers the intended strike.

Annex agreement

A separate agreement on the 35-year concession agreement between the GPHA and MPS for the operationalisation of the new Terminal Three port had agreed that the MPS undertook stevedore works on reefer imports and subsequently transfered them to the GPHA to store and deliver to the consignee or importer as and when Customs duties and handling charges were paid.

However, a GRA directive on the retention of containers to MPS at their facility had sparked confusion at the port following what the workers of GPHA described as moves to make them redundant.

The workers, who had been protesting since March 2019 against possible job losses at the port, dressed in red outfits amid singing and chanting at the main entrance of the Tema Port last Monday.

They accused their management of giving up on the struggle to have the concession agreement between the GPHA and the MPS renegotiated so as to have the authority handle some container business.

Disappointment

Mr Luguje, in the company of the Director of Port, Ms Sandra Opoku, expressed shock and disappointment at the action taken by the workers and told them that the letter was necessitated by a previous letter written by the MPS to the shipping lines demanding a 100 per cent payment of all the charges mentioned earlier without recourse to the authority.

He indicated that the GPHA management had not changed its stance as far as the processes with MPS were concerned.

Mr Luguje added that the solution would be to look at what amount of business the GPHA was doing in terms of container business and whether as parties, the GPHA and MPS could agree for GPHA to retain that business.

He admonished the workers that while management remained committed to making a case so that no one would lose their jobs, they should be seen to be committed to continuously working harder than they were doing before.

Writer’s email: delarussel@gmail.com