The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Affail Monney, has urged the management of the New Times Corporation; managers of the state-owned Ghanaian Times Newspaper, to consider some of the easy demands of their staff, following their protest on Monday.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, he said the “management also has a responsibility to address the low-hanging fruit like promotions, like the investment of their providence fund.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”NanYtUcYn0DJioTo7XYPhAu4lqUVE0V1”]Workers of the New Times Corporation on Monday embarked on a demonstration to protest what they termed as poor working conditions.
The Board of Directors of the New Times Corporation, however described the protest as unfortunate and unwarranted as it was already engaging workers through their union representatives to find solutions their concerns.
“When we heard that the workers had laid down their tools, we dashed to the Times Corporation to solidarize with the workers to assure them that we stand by them and that we will also ensure that what is due them is given them,” Mr. Monney said.
He described the protest as a blow, given that the corporation is trying to turn around its fortunes after well-documented struggles.
Concerns abound that the workers of state corporations agitating against their management may be the problem in their respective organisations because their concerns transcend different management regimes, like instances at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in recent times.
Mr. Monney said such points were “valid” but the immediate concern of the GJA was to ensure that Ghanaian Times newspaper was up and running.
“We don’t want to go into the nitty-gritties of what is happening there. Our main concern is for workers to get back to work and we have succeeded in persuading them that they will worsen their plight if they continue to lay down their tools and they reasoned with us.”
He stressed that it was the collective responsibility of both management and staff to come to a resolution.
“Our urgent appeal to both management and staff is to go back to the negotiation table and look at areas that they can easily address like promotions. How much does it take to address the issue of promotion?.”
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana