Ex-staff of Capital, UT banks to petition president over severance pay
Ex-staff of the erstwhile Capital and UT banks are to petition President Akufo-Addo over delays in the payment of their exit packages, eight months after the collapse of their former employers.
Addressing a news conference in Accra on Tuesday, a representative of the ex-staff, Mr Emmanuel Teye, said “we will send a formal petition to the presidency and we are hopeful that the government will listen to our plight and come to our aid.”
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The petition, he said, would be sent as soon as possible considering the fact that their appeal for the exit packages to be paid had fallen on deaf ears.
“It is unfortunate that eight months down the line, we have not received our exit pay. Majority of us are jobless and the few who were lucky to have been employed by GCB Bank are also worse off in terms of remuneration,” he said.
On August 14, 2017, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) revoked the licenses of UT and Capital banks after they were found to be insolvent.
The liabilities of the two banks, the BoG noted, had overwhelmed their assets and the owners and managers of UT and Capital banks were unable to increase the capital of the banks to address the insolvency.
The BoG subsequently appointed Messrs Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah from PricewaterhouseCoopers (Ghana) Limited as joint receivers for the purpose of winding down the affairs of the two banks.
Workers’ plight
Another representative, Mr Edem Adimado, explained that the plight of the workers of the two defunct banks have been ignored for a long time.
“Over the past few weeks, the posture of the Bank of Ghana anytime our plight has come up in media interactions, is for us to deal with the receivers.
“We believe that this high level of insensitivity to our plight is highly discomforting and most unfortunate,” he said.
He explained that as per the Joint Receivers letter dated January 15, 2018, an agreement was reached with Union of Industry, Commerce and Finance Workers (UNICOF) and the representatives to pay all staff of the defunct banks an exit package.
“However, nothing has been paid to staff. We are, therefore, appealing for all entitlements to be paid to us as a matter of urgency,” he said.