GRIDCO workers suspend strike

Employees of Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCO) yesterday suspended the sit down strike they embarked upon on Wednesday to demand for debts owed the company by Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and other state companies.

A press statement released yesterday said following a joint standing committee meeting of the management and staff associations of GRIDCO, the strike action had been suspended.

The statement signed by the chairman of GRIDCO’s Senior Staff Association, Chairman Divisional Union and Director Hunan Resource and Services said management was committed to closer and regular engagements with the staff associations and stakeholders with the view to resolve all outstanding issues.

It stated “regular work including all other services will proceed as normal.”

The statement, however, assured the general public and its cherished customers that it was committed to delivering on its mandate of transmitting reliable and uninterrupted power supply.

It would be recalled that the employees of the company on Friday, November 1, this year held a press conference in Accra and warned that they would embark on an industrial action as part of efforts to get the debts paid.

The chairman of the Senior Staff Association of GRIDCO, Raphael Kornor, said the employees had reached their wits end and could no longer continue to sacrifice. 

He said, they had resolved to embark on various actions if the GH¢250 million the President directed the Finance Ministry to pay GRIDCO was not honoured.

The GRIDCO employees are also demanding other debts such as US$33, 194,228 owed them by VALCO as at October 2019; GH¢642,112,501 by the ECG as at October 2019, GH¢ 211,390,448 owed by Northern Electricity Distribution Company as at October, 2019 and the GH¢94, 204,903.17 which is the Power Distribution Services (PDS) debt collected by ECG during the suspension of PDS.

“We are embarking on these actions to seek financial freedom for GRIDCO,” Mr Kornor said.

FROM GODFRED BLAY GIBBAH, TEMA