Workers of FGBC rise up against Management

Accra, May 4, GNA - The Professional and Managerial Staff and local Unions of Industrial and Commercial Union of First Ghana Building Company (FGBC) Limited, have given Management a two-day ultimatum to initiate a Wage Opener negotiation.

A three- page petition signed by Richard Kabutey, Chairman of the National Union, Robert Agbadza, Secretary and Alfred Quao, Acting Chairman of the Local Union also asked Management to organise an Annual General Meeting (AGM) to elect substantive Board of Directors for the Bank.

The agitated workers said in  May 2003 a four- member Management team was brought from National Investment Bank (NIB) with the sole mission of recapitalising the Bank following agitations about the mismanagement of the former administration.

 'Ten years on all they could boast of is the conversion of the Society to Limited Liability Company.

 'Management have failed to meet the Bank of Ghana's minimum capital requirement of GH¢7,000.000 by 31st December 2012.

 'The current stated capital of the company is 99.3 per cent composed of revaluation surplus and Management Emoluments/ Expenses, all converted into shares in favour of the government and  NIB.

 'For more than five years Management and Board of Directors have failed to organise AGM, a platform where shareholders would be updated on the state of their company, the petition said.

The document said Board of Directors elected at the last AGM stepped down in February 2009, when the National Democratic Congress government came into power.  The current Board of Directors was constituted without the approval of AGM.

 'It is pathetic, if not sad to say that in modern Ghana a financial institution in a strategic sector of housing is not automated. While small microfinance companies are applying robust Information, Communication Technology in their operations a 57-year-old First Ghana Building Company's operations are manually run. No check system in operation.

 'Customers will have to travel long distances to transact banking business. There are delays in crediting customers' accounts, especially when direct transfers are involved. All these have culminated into the Company losing vital customers to the more proactive competitors.

 'There are currently 68 permanent workers manning nine branches and Head Office. There are branches, which are being manned by three staff, operating manually. Due to poor conditions of service, newly recruited staff often resigned within the first five months. Staff strength dropped from 94 in 2008 to 68 in 2013, even after recruiting 12 more in 2012.'

The document claimed: 'Salaries paid to workers are highly miserable .This is because Management prepared the salary structure, which they are placed on.  They receive their salary based on NIB salary structure, which together with their foreign travelling expenses, are eventually charged to FGBC's income. Also there is no human resource policy for the Company. As a result, recruitments and promotions are arbitrarily done.'

The petitioners said Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations for 2011, which should have taken effect from January 2011, were concluded in May 2012.

 'As we speak, Wage Opener negotiation for 2012 is yet to be concluded not to talk about this year's main negotiations which are yet to be considered.'

Bonus paid to staff in 2007 was declared as loans after five years by Management. Several appeals to Management to suspend their action went unheeded, though other beneficiaries retired without paying for it. GNA