{"id":242752,"date":"2016-08-25T05:36:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T05:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=242752"},"modified":"2016-08-25T05:36:33","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T05:36:33","slug":"striking-ecg-workers-to-face-sanctions-if-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/08\/striking-ecg-workers-to-face-sanctions-if-govt\/","title":{"rendered":"Striking ECG workers to face sanctions if… – Gov’t"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Power Ministry has said it may be forced to take punitive actions against workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) if they do not immediately abort their ongoing 3-hour daily protest scheduled to end on Friday.<\/p>\n
Yesterday [Wednesday], the ECG workers laid down their tools\u00a0in all district and regional offices to protest government\u2019s decision to hand over management of the company to a private entity.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”bJUY4KowcPmcis6SLrbRCuuAPeohhYdM”]The Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU) is at the centre of this protest that has seen offices\u00a0shut down between 8am to 11am, and has called on government to review the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact which seeks to cede the ECG to private investors for a period of 25 years.<\/p>\n
But in an interview with Citi News<\/strong>, Deputy Minister for Power, John Jinapor, pressed the workers to understand that some form of compromise may be in order.<\/p>\n He explained that, \u201cin negotiations, you do not get all that you demand. When you come with your demands, the other party also comes with its demands.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Jinapor did admit that some of the workers\u2019 concerns were legitimate \u201cbecause if you are going for a concession, there is some level of uncertainty so we must clarify all those issues; employee security, job security so we are willing a determined to engage further and clarify all those issues and a host of other issues that thy have raised.\u201d<\/p>\n Nonetheless, he held that the workers could not throw prudency out of the window and \u201cunilaterally declare a sit down strike. It is not done.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are nations governed by laws. The labour laws ought to be respected and so if they continue on that tangent, we shall make the appropriate decision going forward,\u201d the Deputy Power Minster stated.<\/p>\n TUC backs protest<\/strong><\/p>\n The Trades Union Congress (TUC), has thrown its weight<\/a><\/strong><\/span> behind the protest indicating that\u00a0dialogue between the unions and government is yielding no fruits.<\/p>\n