The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) Workers’ Union has apologised for locking up their offices on Thursday to protest the return of Nana Yaa Gyantoa as the Director of Public Affairs for the commission.
PURC workers across the country embarked on a sit-down strike over reports that the board of the commission was trying to re-engage Nana Yaa Gyantoa, whose resignation from the utilities regulator takes effect in November this year.
The workers also appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to immediately reconstitute their board and sack the Executive Secretary, Samuel Sarpong, who has been accused of transferring GHS 435,087 into his personal account to bring peace to the commission.
But speaking to Class News, National Chairman of the PURC Workers’ Union, Alhaji Jabaru Abukari, apologised for the sit-down strike and said they will adopt another method to drive home their concerns.
He said: “It’s rather unfortunate and we are sorry it had to go that way. As you see, we are all customers at a point. You also have to address your issues and it wasn’t planned that way and we didn’t intend to let it go that way because we’ve been quiet and they’ve been doing things in between the times government said it will act.
“There was an employment that was done, there were a lot of meetings that went on so should we continue and say we are waiting? For almost nine good months when they are taking decisions affecting the generality of staff?
“Last month I had to intervene to calm staff because it nearly resulted in agitation because an employment was done without considering the internal procedure. But we are adopting a different strategy today.”
Meanwhile, a labour expert, Yiadom Boakye Amponsah, has described the protest of the staff as “distasteful”.
“I find that very disappointing, employee unions or employee(s) do not determine who works for an organisation. There are clear procedures that are followed before people are employed in organisations. Once someone is employed in an organisation, I don’t think that it rest with the union or the workers body to say that if this person is employed I won’t work. This lady used to work for the organisation, she resigned and if you resign from an organisation, you are not barred from re-joining, provided the vacancy is there and you still meet the requirement for that job. So for any employee to say if this person comes back I won’t work, I find that very distasteful and it’s not in line with labour practice,” he said.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
