VALCO Workers Rejected Our 22% Increment In Salary – Management

Officials of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) have revealed that staff of the firm rejected a 22% increment in salary, describing it as insufficient.

The management thought it would be welcoming news to the over 300 staff at a time when the country is experiencing an economic downturn.

However, their offer was rejected, and the workers rather staged a demonstration in the early hours of Monday, October 31, 2022, refusing some management members entry into the facility.

Following the announcement of a 15% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for workers in the public service by the government in July 2022 due to what the government described as a ‘global crisis’, the declaring of losses for more than a decade by VALCO and a nosedive in the prices of aluminium prices, management said the 22% increment in salaries, amidst all the difficulties, should be a good step towards addressing the conditions of service of the workers.

The management further explained in a statement that it offered the 22% increment in salaries for the workers with the assurance of further increments in the future as steps are being taken to retrofit the plant.

But the workers insisted on “a 62% salary increment to the management of VALCO, and subsequently reduced it to 55%”.

Management of VALCO appealed to the workers to consider the current state of the aluminium smelter, which, for years, has been recording losses until the year 2021 where, through prudent management and better supervision, chalked some modest gains recording Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation & Amortization (EBITDA) profits.

According to management, they are hoping to build on this and retrofit and modernize the plant to improve efficiency and increase its capacity. This will see VALCO partnering with an investor to increase its production from the current 50,000 tonnes out of its 200,000 tonnes installed capacity to 300,000 tonnes of refined aluminium per year.

VALCO further indicated to the workers union executives that they would have to invite an independent arbiter in labour/industrial disputes settlement i.e. the National Labour Commission (NLC), to take up the matter after negotiations between management and the workers ended up in a stalemate.

However, the workers staged a demonstration against the management, calling for better conditions of service and the immediate dismissal of some company executives who they described as ‘retirees’.

VALCO added that the continuous stay by some staff who had attained retirement age was on a contract basis. That was done because of their experience and knowledge in running the highly technical plant.

VALCO officials further explained that the workers had requested that their salaries are pegged to the dollar during negotiations.

“It is significant to clarify that the salary of the Ghanaian worker is not indexed in the USD but in our national currency, the Ghana Cedi; thus, the demands from the workers…is untenable and must be disregarded”.

The agitations of the workers led to a temporally controlled halt in operations.

According to some of the workers at VALCO, this could cost the government over $1o million to restore operations.

However, VALCO management has dispelled the claims.

“We wish to state emphatically that it will not cost VALCO about USD 100,0oo per pot in shutting down and USD 10 million in restarting the plant. Rather, it is to prevent such occurrences that the management opted for the controlled halt in its operations,” the VALCO executives stated.