GBC Workers Up In Arms Over Fair Wages Directive

Unionized staff of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) are clad in red as they protest a directive from the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to strike out some allowances they are said to be enjoying but not entitled for.

The Chief Executive of the Commission, Ing. Benjamin Arthur, in a letter to the Controller and Accountant General, directed that the allowances enjoyed by some staff over the past years be stopped.

This follows the Nationwide Payroll Monitoring Exercise launched by the Commission in April.

“Staff of GBC who have received the unearned allowances amounting to Two Million, Eighty-Four Thousand and Twenty Ghana Cedis (GH¢2,084,020.00) per annum should be made to refund the allowances in the appropriate GoG Suspense Account,” Ing. Arthur’s letter dated Thursday, April 20 instructed.

But speaking on The Breakfast Show on Monday, May 22, Chairman of GBC Divisional Union Sam Nat Kevor descended heavily on the Chief Executive of the Commission, questioning how he came to the unilateral conclusion that staff are not entitled to the allowances.

According to him, there was no engagement with the union on the exercise.

He said workers of GBC are already suffering and Ing. Arthur’s directive will only disrupt the hitherto harmonial work environment.

“We don’t want to have GBC on fire again,” he stressed, “so by the end of this month our allowances have to be intact.”

Chairman of the Senior Staff Management Union Tahiru Abdul-Razak Mohamed said salaries of senior staff have rather reduced by 33 percent over the years.

He said 70 percent of current Directors are Deputy Directors working in acting positions.

Therefore, he said the Acting Directors are earning what is due them based on their duties.

The workers stormed the studios to serve notice of their demands and threaten to disrupt the peaceful work environment.