Tension is mounting at the GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited in Accra over three months’ salary arrears and what the workers of the company describe as poor working conditions.
To establish displeasure about the development, members of the GIHOC workers union yesterday staged a protest at their premises.
The agitated employees were spotted by the Ghanaian Times at about 11:30 am clad in red shirts and bands whiles two armed policemen were standing at the entrance of the company.
The protesting workers alleged that Managing Director of the company, Mr Kofi Jumah, directed them to leave the work premises until they were ready to remove the red bands from their wrists and halt the protest.
One of the employees who only gave his name as Kingsley said after the staff were driven out, Mr Jumah called heavily armed policemen to the premises of the company to prevent the workers from demonstrating.
“We are not being given the needed attention and respect as workers. Every member of the staff here is suffering, salaries are not being paid, making life unbearable for all of us.
“We need the government to intervene in this issue as a matter of urgency,” he added.
He stated that the leaders of the workers union of GIHOC were preparing to meet the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industries, Mr Herbert Krapa, to discuss the issues at hand and possibly find a solution to them.
Some workers who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Ghanaian Times that since the company’s current managing director took over about six years ago, working conditions of workers had become worst to the extent that even payment of workers’ Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions and Provident Funds have halted for one year.
BY RAISSA SAMBOU
