"If you decide to leave ECG don't come back" – Boakye Agyarko
The Minister of Energy, Mr Boakye Agyarko has asked protesting workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) who are asking for their severance package to be prepared to leave the company once their demand is met.
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According to him, there was no way the company would pay a severance package en masse for all workers.
Rather, he said those who voluntarily want to leave could do so and their severance package would be paid to them.
The union executives of the ECG in Accra on Tuesday picketed outside the premises of the Trades Union Congress to demand their severance package in the ECG concession agreement.
They contended that since the government was going ahead with the ECG concession, it was within the labour laws for the staff to be compensated, hence the need for discussions on their severance package.
Read also: ECG workers demand severance package in concession agreement
Addressing a press conference in Accra Wednesday, Mr Agyarko said “…If you decide to leave ECG, then you will be paid your severance, but you should not have the expectation or guarantee that the new company will take you on… So it is opened, all the ECG workers who want to leave and not join the new company are at liberty to do so and their severance so arranged.”
“But it is not going to be a collective bargaining situation where all 6,500 ECG workers are paid the severance and then transferred to the new company. You are at liberty to transfer yourself to the new company and carry with you all the benefits from ECG and continue accruing new benefits. You are equally at liberty to say that I want to wash my hands off ECG and go my own way,” he added.
Background
Ghana and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the United States signed the second compact worth $498 million in October 2016 to improve the performance of the power sector.
The government was expected to allow about 80 per cent private sector control in ECG for the country to benefit from a cash injection of about one billion US dollars over a period of five years.
Staff of the ECG protested the deal over possible retrenchment and the government not meeting the terms of the agreement.