12 Ghanaian workers at MODEC, the company operating the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah vessel on the Jubilee oil field have withdrawn their services in solidarity with their colleagues who were sacked on Monday.
MODEC sacked all of the local workers who embarked on a strike seeking to compel the company to increase their salaries.
About 40 local workers laid down their tools on October 29,2014 to protest what they describe as poor working conditions and remunerations.
[contextly_sidebar id=”PpS5sT49sL3qnHWdvwbq6NEP9KjLSWVY”]They claim MODEC pays expatriates workers better than the Ghanaian workers, whose salaries don’t even match industry standards.
The workers say they were made to sign a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the company awaiting a final deliberation on the issue on Wednesday “only to be given dismissal letters on Monday.”
Speaking to Citi News, the Vice Chairman of MODEC Ghana, Patrick Ahiagyi said : “for now the National Union is writing a letter to MODEC management in reply to the letter that was sent down indicating their violation of the MOU signed and asking them to reinstate the people unconditionally so we go back to the drawing board.”
A formal protest letter is expected to be presented to the company and copied to the Petroleum Commission, the Ministries of Energy and Employment and Labour Relations by the workers.
“All the workers of the FPSO, the locals who are members of the Union are also asking questions, they are all withdrawing their services in solidarity with their workers,”Ahiagyi added.
Some of the workers whose contracts have been terminated are demanding that government and the Petroleum Commission immediately intervenes.
“All we are looking for is that there should be justice. Our salary disparities is what we are fighting against… the matter lies with the TUC as our mother union and that is why we are having a meeting. Until the problem is solved, no one is going to work,” an employee told Citi News.
Implications of MODEC’s decision
A labour analyst at the University Ghana Business School, Dr. Akwasi Amponsah-Tawiah has chastised the management of MODEC Ghana over their decision to lay off local workers who embarked on a strike.
Speaking to Citi News, the Senior Human Resource Management Lecturer said the decision will adversely affect work output.
“If we adopt an adversarial step in dealing with employees you don’t succeed as an organization, you lose out on critical mass trained employees and it is your organisation that is going to lose. I mean sacking these staff is not going to help your organization, specifically in their area of operation…,”Tawiah explained.
“These are people who require some technical knowledge to operate in that sector so ideally the organization is losing out big because they are now going to recruit people and train them in order to come up to speed with the operations of the organization,”he added.
He said government should have rather negotiated with the employees rather than taking such a harsh decision against them.
He is therefore calling on MODEC to dialogue with the workers in order to settle the matter amicably.
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah