Some ‘concerned staff of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) have called the bluff of the leadership of the Divisional Union of the company, describing agitations against the company’s Managing Director, Yaw Kwakwa, “as politically motivated”.
The concerned workers, led by Eric Yeboah, say they are not surprised about the path taken by the Divisional Union “since they are fully aware of how some of their leaders and members were employed by the company”.
“We are not surprised at what the Division Union is doing. Their action is politically motivated. However, we want to send a message to them that once they have chosen to pursue their master’s bid, we will not allow that because we know that Mr Kwakwa has brought a lot of transformation to the GACL, and we will not sit aloof for all these gains to be derailed.
“We will resist all their actions and stand solidly by Mr Kwakwa,” the concerned staff said in a statement.
Concerns
The GACL Divisional Union of PSWU, led by its Chairman, Abdul-Issaka Bamba, on February 26, 2021 called for the head of the MD, citing alleged disregard for staff welfare resulting in several outstanding payments owed the staff.
The union members also accused the MD of deliberately refusing to implement several reports and outsourcing key aspects of the company’s operations at exorbitant cost, in spite of the availability of in-house capacity.
At the heart of the concerns among the workers is the opening of an Escrow Account into which about 95 per cent of the total revenue of the GACL is deposited to service a loan facility of US$274million secured by the airport operator for the construction of Kotoka International Airport’s Terminal 3.
Due to the repayment of the loan facility after the moratorium period, revenue inflows targeted to finance other pressing issues have been crippled, a situation which has resulted in the clash of heads within the GACL.
Welfare
But according to the concerned staff, the MD has prioritised the welfare of the staff, contrary to what is being put out by the union.
They eulogised Mr Kwakwa for ensuring provision of medical care, safe working environment, and provision of PPEs among others for the staff.
“It is therefore not only myopic on the part of the Divisional Union to limit staff welfare to the payment of monies but also quite absurd to make such demands like the payment of bonus in the midst of this corona virus pandemic which has greatly impacted on the aviation industry,” they said.
They added that the MD operates an open-door policy where any staff is free and able to access his office, apart from engaging the Union on several occasions on various matters bothering on the general interest and welfare of staff, noting that such moves by the MD have records to back them.
To the concerned staff, juxtaposing “all the unfounded allegations” levelled against Mr Kwakwa and that of the responses they have given, “it is quite conclusive that the Union is up in arms with Mr Kwakwa for no justifiable reason.”
“We think that the call for workers to lay down their tools is uncalled for and any staff found following such directives by the Union must be brought to book since we at the Ghana Airports Company Limited are essential service providers by the state.
“We also wish to state that Mr Kwakwa must be retained in office as the Managing Director of Ghana Airports Company Limited since all the allegations levelled against him are frivolous,” they added.
Outstanding payments
Commenting on Mr Kwakwa’s alleged disregard for staff welfare matters, and resultant outstanding payments owed the staff, the concerned staff noted that, per their investigations, none of the applicants who attended “those interviews made the pass mark and that a decision had been made by the management of GACL to re-run the interviews”.
On the issue of outsourcing, the group is of the view that it was in line with best industry practices as most aspects of the organisation that are not directly related to the aviation industry are usually outsourced.
“We believe that if something has been said about Mr Kwakwa with regard to outsourcing, then it must rather be a commendation since he has successfully managed to renegotiate most of such contracts to the benefit of GACL.
“Notable among these are the contract with MAPA and the BRT, usually referred to as ‘ayalolo’. Indeed, we find it extremely difficult to give any credibility to this wild allegation since the Divisional Union failed to substantiate their allegation by failing to cite a single example of the supposed unwarranted contracts,” they noted.
Source: dailystatesman.com.gh
