Ghana aviation workers say not on strike
Ms Leticia Lamptey, Chairperson of Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Workers Union, on Tuesday said staff of the Authority was clad in red to register their displeasure about the state of negotiations of their 2012 salaries.
She, however, said the workers were not on strike and everyone was at post and working as usual.
Ms Lamptey said “It is an internal issue, and it has not reached a strike. Workers are now talking with body language and we are registering our displeasure.”
He said that if after three days, the workers do not hear from management on the matter, they would take the issue to the National Labour Commission (NLC).
Ms Lamptey said some members of staff complained about management not increasing their salaries though they enjoyed about double the increase that staff received in the past.
Mr Ebenezer Sagoe, Director Human Resources, GCAA, in an interview with the GNA, said management was ‘surprised’ to see staff clad in red on Monday because the negotiation had been cordial with no acrimony whatsoever.
He said GCAA said negotiations on the entire collective bargain agreement in May this year, had agree on that 23 out of the 24 Articles needed to be reviewed with only one outstanding; which was on their salaries.
Mr Sagoe explained that at the last meeting between management and the union on Friday, July 20, the union raised the issue of a deadlock and the bringing in of an arbitrator, which management agreed.
He noted that management agreed to have an arbitrator because it did not want to go through the last half of the year wrangling over salaries as it would have to go through the process again in about six months.
Mr Sagoe said management did not know why the staff was wearing red bands, especially as both parties had agreed at the last meeting not to create any impression of any rancor between them as all the negotiations had been cordial and had not stalled as announced by some media houses.
Nana Defie Badu, Corporate Communications Manager of GCAA, confirmed that workers were going about their duties as usual.
On staff performance appraisal, which some media reports referred to as one of the reasons for staff displeasure, she stated that the consultants working on the new performance appraisal were currently on the ground and they had taken all staff through training for the appraisal, which would be deployed this year.
The performance appraisal is supposed to help management to determine staff strength and weaknesses so that management can provide appropriate development in specific areas, and also help it reward staff appropriately.
Source: GNA