Thousands of air passengers may face days, weeks and months of travel chaos if the current tight spot between the workers and the management of the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) is not solved.
According to sources, since the inception of the current management, the company has not presented its yearly accounts to the State Enterprise Commission (SEC) for auditing thus bonuses are not paid to the workers.
DAYBREAK’s Intelligence gathered that calls for negotiations were not heeded to until workers of the company hoisted red-flags at vintage points around Ghana’s Gateway and were ready to declare a strike last Thursday when management of the company called them for negotiations.
The planned strike is being held to protest against the management plans to give the workers a 3-5% increase instead of the 25% proposed by the workers.
Sources confirm that personnel from the Airport Police Station were employed to remove the hoisted red flags with a meeting hurriedly scheduled.
Though not proven beyond doubt, sources say the meeting between the workers and the management of the GACL led by its Managing Director, Mrs. Doreen Fianko ended in a stalemate.
This was because the management of GACL came to the bargaining table with the 3-5% increase in pay and nothing else but with pressure mounting from the leaders of the workers, management finally gave in to a 20% increase with a promise to conclude negotiations this Friday, 24 June 2011.
“With 32 airlines currently operating in Ghana and four new ones coming, it is shocking that the GACL cannot cater for us when the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) workers are doing better, our working conditions are so bad that we wonder whether the separation was better”, a source noted.
Also, apart from the non-payment of bonuses, this paper gathered that the current management has never declared profits since its inception thus not paying dividends to the government of Ghana.
DAYBREAK also gathered that London-based Ghanaian Evangelist and a former CDR, Dr. Lawrence Tetteh who was flown down to pray for the revival of moribund Ghana Airways some years ago is now the leader of a fellowship for the GACL at the insistence of the Managing Director.
Because of his new role, DAYBREAK gathered that Dr. Lawrence Tetteh has a VVIP status and travels with a free ticket at the expense of the company.
Workers of the GACL also complained of the usage of the VVIP with some claiming “it is been sold and once you have money, you can pass through”.
To back their claim with proof concerning Dr. Tetteh, the workers cite the arrival of Joseph ‘King Kong’ Agbako from his fight base in the United States of America where Dr. Tetteh was seen praying.
Several calls were placed to Mrs. Fianko for clarification but all were answered by a male voice who told our reporter that “this is MD’s phone, please leave a message because she is busy”.
Another call was placed and the same male voice responded by saying “she is still not done with what she is doing’.
When the Board Chairman of the company returned our call, he said, he was not going to make available any information via phone unless his office his visited.
Source: GhanaWeb
