By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Nov. 04, GNA – The management of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) has shut down the 127 cells of the Company’s Aluminium Smelter following agitation by the workers over salary increment among others.
Until its shutdown, VALCO was operating at 25 percent capacity of its full 500 cells.
The Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, 24 hours after the shutdown saw workers who reported for duty standing in groups discussing the situation.
The police were positioned at vantage places at the premises with a special multipurpose vehicle of the Formed Police Unit (FPU) strategically located at the entrance of the smelter.
Mr Egar Tetteh, VALCO Local Union Chairman, addressing the media, said the shutting of the cells would cost US dollars 12.7 because “repairing of one cell after shutdown costs USD100,000” .
Mr Tetteh called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to investigate the circumstances leading to the shutdown as the act would cause financial loss to the state.
Touching on their grievances, he said there was need for the top management members of the Company who had attained 60 years to go on compulsory retirement for others to be promoted.
He indicated that though their salaries were quoted in dollars, management was still paying them the 2021 cedi equivalent of their salaries, a situation that had reduced their purchasing power.
“VALCO is an entity that deals in Aluminium, we only have global competitors, therefore, all goods and services are in dollars,” he said, questioning why they should be paid in Cedi?
Mr Tetteh also argued that there was no smelter in the world whose workers received less than 1,000 dollars as pay, adding that VALCO workers received as low as 337 dollars a month.
According to the Union, though management had refused to restore workers’ salaries to the current dollar rate, it had increased their fuel allowance to 115 gallons a month.
GNA