Power Crisis: Coca Cola, Cadbury, others to sack workers
Some workers of Coca Cola, Mantrac, Cadbury Ghana, Fan milk and other companies are expected to lose their jobs as the energy crisis deepens, Starrfmonline reported Tuesday
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The report mentioned the the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), as saying that the four companies had brought notifications of their retrenchment plans as a result of the worsening power crisis, which is having a toll on Industry and businesses.
“We [ICU] have been receiving letters from most companies that they want to cut down on the number of employees that they have.
“For the past week we have received about four: Coca Cola, Mantrac, Cadbury Ghana, Fan milk: they have all brought letters that they want to cut down their staff strength,” a deputy general secretary of the union, Emmanuel Benimah, was quoted as having said.
“Companies need power to produce because without power they cannot operate, so they have to operate on generator sets, which is additional cost…and this is costing them. So it is a crisis situation,” Mr Benimah told Accra-based Starr FM.
Ghana's power crisis has worsened in recent times, with the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GridCo), shedding between 400 and 600 megawatts of electricity daily.
President John Dramani Mahama last month blamed the crisis on the failure of Nigeria to supply Ghana with an agreed quantity of gas through the West Africa Gas Pipeline to power Ghana’s thermal plants.
He said Ghana was therefore working towards self-sufficiency in gas supply with the setting up of the Atuabo Gas Plant and the development of others gas fields, including ‘Sankofa’ and 'Tain'.
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The President said the low water level in the Akosombo Dam, which has led to the loss of two generation units, had also contributed to the crisis.
“Two units are shut down because if we run the six units the lake will go beyond the minimum level and we will have to shut down the whole of Akosombo so better to conserve the water and these are all the factors that have resulted in the dumsor.
“Unfortunately, the range this year has not been good so the lake level has also dropped and so as I speak today we are using only four units of Akosombo,” he said on recent state visit to Germany.