Address Ghanaians, expatriates salary disparity — GTPCWU

The General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU) has called on the government to address the salary disparity between expatriate and Ghanaians in the oil and gas sector.

That, it said, was because Ghanaian workers in the sector were not being treated fairly.

"We want the government or the Petroleum Commission to look at it and ensure that the right thing is done," the Chairman of the GTPCWU, Bernard Owusu, said.

Event 

Mr Owusu said this at the 12th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the GTPCWU at Winneba in the Central Region last Thursday.

He explained that for instance, a Ghanaian taking over from an expatriate was not paid as that expatriate and that needed to be addressed.

The GTPCWU Chairman said the government should ensure that the union was represented on the committee of the local content committee and be on the board of the Petroleum Commission as well.

That, he said, would ensure that the regulator was guided to be able to do what was right so that the ordinary Ghanaian would feel that they were all benefiting from the country's oil.

He said the union was also asking that persons who drove commercial motorbikes, otherwise known as Okada, would have their work legalised to formalise their operations.

Justifying this, he said if Okada was used to augment transportation, it would help to boost transportation and help deal with issue of traffic congestions.

Assurance 

A Deputy Minister of Energy, Herbert Krapa, gave the assurance that the ministry would take up the matter to ensure the right thing was done in ensuring that the organisation was on the Local Content Committee of the Petroleum Commission.

"This is a matter we will take up to ensure that the right thing is done," he said.

He said the government knew the institutions that most of them found themselves, adding that the nation could not be kept moving without petroleum products. 

"If we do not have petroleum products available and at the right quantity and affordable we would not have a nation moving," he said.

He said the local content law would also be passed for the downstream sector.

Mr Krapa said the ministry had a five point agenda that it was currently driving, with the first being to ensure that the country share of hydro carbon resources (oil and gas) was increased together with the revenue that was generated from there.

The other, he said, was to keep the nation moving through the availability of petroleum products and then keep the lights on.

For its part, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Dr Anthony Yaw Baah, said the union was still waiting for the Minister of Energy to help in the reinstatement of three staff members of the Sunon Asogli plant who were dismissed.

"If he had carried through what we had discussed we would not be where we are currently," he said.