ECG workers demand halt to extension of contract for MD

Workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) yesterday staged a demonstration against an alleged decision of the board of directors of the company to extend the term of office of the managing director by one more year.

They claimed that the Managing Director of the company, Mr Robert Dwamena, had attained the compulsory retirement age of 60 and, therefore, should be made to retire as required.

The workers, clad in red, stormed the company’s head office at about 8:40 a.m. yesterday holding placards with inscriptions such as “You have finished serving your term, MD, leave for someone else to takeover,” ‘What do you have to show for your tenure?’ ‘You betrayed our trust and signed our death warrant.”

The demonstrators, led by the National Chairman of the Junior Staff Workers of the Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU), Mr Ben Kanoese, and his secretary, Mr Frank Adjetey-Badu, said Mr Dwamena, who recently celebrated his 60th birthday with a party at the company’s head office, ought to have taken an accumulated leave prior to retirement.

They questioned the rationale for the extension of the contract when previous managing directors of the company never had such privileges.

Arrest

The hitherto peaceful demonstration nearly degenerated into violence when the demonstrating workers, in their attempt to enter the office to present a resolution to the company’s management, vandalised glass doors when the security men manning the entrance denied them access.

The situation prompted officials of the Volta River Authority (VRA), where the ECG head office is located, to call in the police for protection.

Police from the Accra Divisional Command, led by its commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ms Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, arrived at the scene and arrested the Chairman of the Junior Staff Workers, Mr Kanoese, who led the demonstrators to the premises.

ACP Addo-Danquah was of the view that the demonstrators had flouted the Public Order Act for not seeking permission from the police five clear days ahead of the protest.

Mr Kanoese and his secretary, Mr Adjetey-Badu, argued that the premises was their work place so they did not require permission from the police to protest, but the commander insisted that the facility was a public place and not an individual property for the workers to lay claim to.

“I am giving you 30 minutes to clear your people and get them out of the premises, while you go with us to the Regional Police Command or we will be prompted to apply force to eject your members out of the premises,” ACP Addo-Danquah told Mr Kanoese and the leadership of the group.

The warning, however, infuriated the workers who immediately converged and chanted songs to dare the police.

Mr Kanoese, however, calmed the group down, after which the workers were conveyed to the national office of the Trades Union’s Congress (TUC) where the leadership, including the General Secretary of PUWU, Mr Michael Adumata Nyantakyi, addressed them.

Concerns

Addressing the media, Mr Adjetey-Badu indicated that the National Executive Committee (NEC) of PUWU, at a meeting on September 5, notified the company’s board of the need for Mr Dwamena to be made to proceed on leave, having reached the compulsory retirement age of 60 years.

According to him, Mr Dwamena ought to have left office on September 28; however, “we have been reliably informed that he has been given a contract extension to stay for a year.”

He queried the criteria for the alleged renewal of the contract of the managing director of the ECG, while such favours were not extended to his predecessors.

“Why should he still be in office at the age of 60 years? Had his predecessors not left office at 60, will he have had the opportunity to be the MD over the last couple of years?” Mr Adjetey-Badu asked.

The General Secretary of PUWU, Mr Nyantakyi, who later addressed the workers, tasked them to remain resolute in the demand for their rights.

“This is a process and we need to stand together as workers and fight for whatever will promote the cause of our welfare and the organisation,” Mr Nyantakyi said.