GBC Staff Petitions Minister Over ‘Illegal’ Directive By Fair Wages Chief
The Divisional Union and Senior Management Staff Union of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) have presented a joint petition to the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations concerning conditions of service.
The petition, copied to the Chief of Staff, Minister of National Security, and Speaker of Parliament, among other personalities, is over the stoppage of workers’ allowances by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).
The unions strongly opposed the FWSC directive, claiming that it is not legally supported and thus illegitimate.
“We find the decision very detestable on the grounds that it contravenes the 1992 Constitution and the Labour Law, Act 651 of 2003,” the petition said.
It went on to say that not only was the withdrawal in violation of the Labour Act, but that due process was not followed before the decision was prosecuted.
“The unions, in our humble opinion, wish to state that the Controller and Accountant General’s Department under the Public Financial Management Act 921 cannot just act on a mere or unanimous letter without express permission from the Ministry of Finance.
“The best the Controller and Accountant General’s Department could have done was to have investigated the allegation,” it said.
The unions seek that the sector minister summons the Commission’s CEO, Ben Arthur, “and ask him to reverse the illegal directive”.
“We also pray that you use your good office to prevail on the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to restore the allowances because the removal is a violation of natural justice as spelt out in the 1992 Constitution.”
The Chief Executive of FWSC, Ing. Ben Arthur, in May 2023, wrote to the Controller and Accountant-General to instruct some staff of the state broadcaster to refund some allowances said to be wrongfully paid to them.
According to FWSC, the affected staff received a total of GH¢2,084,020 allowances within a year which they weren’t supposed to have received.
This information on the alleged GH¢2,084,020 ‘unearned’ allowances to some GBC staff was discovered during a nationwide payroll monitoring exercise by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.