GRC Management Assures workers

The management of the Ghana Railway Company has assured workers of the company that none of them will be victimised when they resume work. The workers have therefore been urged to resume work to ensure that the company does not lose contracts to its competitors in the haulage industry. The Managing Director of the company, Mr. Ruphus Quaye, gave the assurance in reaction to concerns raised by the leadership of the interim union that they were being threatened with a court action by the Labour Commission aimed at forcing the workers to resume work. He said the sector minister had intervened to resolve all legal matters and indicated that a memorandum of understanding (MoD) was ready to be signed by the management and the interim union. Mr Quaye said the company's locomotives had not been attended to for more than a month now and so there were works to be done on the rail lines. Unfortunately, he said, the company's competitors were also looking for long-term contracts with the GRC's biggest clients, hence the need for the workers to resume work. The Chairman of the Interim Committee of the union, Mr. J.K. Dadzie, indicated that he had been served with a writ of summons by the National Labour Commission (NLC) to appear before court. He said in spite of the fact that members of the interim committee had managed to convince the workers to resume work, "I have just been served with a letter to appear before court". Mr Dadzie said the action of the NLC would throw overboard all the efforts that the union had made to get the workers to resume work. He blamed those who claimed to be involved in the resolution of the impasse between management and staff for not doing enough to avert the current situation. According to him, efforts to resolve the industrial action had been frustrated by court actions. Mr Dadzie said the workers were not happy with the fact that work had come to a standstill. The railway workers have been on strike from February this year to press home their demand for better conditions of service, a 150 percent salary increase and the immediate payment of their salary arrears.