News

Friday, March 11, 2016

Ghanaian Mineworkers cry foul over wide salary inequalities
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot

Accra, Dec 14, Ghanadot - The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Ghana Mineworkers’ Union of Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) has expressed its ultimate displeasure over huge salary discrepancies and other benefits existing between expatriates and their top Ghanaian management and other staff in the mining industry.

To buttress the above wide salary inequalities, the Mineworkers have hinted that a recent research conducted by the African Labour Research Network further revealed that “a common feature of the wage structure of Golding Mining Companies is the huge income inequalities”.

Additionally, they disclosed that the remuneration of AngloGold Ashanti Executives was 289 times as high as the lowest mineworker who risks his life on the job. While an executive of Gold Fields earns 201 times the income of the lowest paid mineworker.

In AngloGold Ashanti, the minimum salary of a mineworker is $262.00 per month which is about 340 times the salary of the highest paid executive in Ghana. While in the same the company the average expatriate salary is $19,586.00 per month compared with the Ghanaian Senior Officer who earns $711.00 per month doing the same or similar job.

Again, according to the aggrieved Mineworkers “in AngloGold Ashanti an average rent allowance of $15,000.00 per annum is paid to top Ghanaian Management staff in Gold House, Accra. Meanwhile, the Management of AngloGold Ashanti continues to drag its feet in our effort to negotiate a fair rent allowance for non accommodated unionized members at its Obuasi and Iduapriem mine sites”.

However, just this month AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) and the Ghana Mines Workers Union (GMWU) had concluded a three-year Collective Agreement, effective January 1, 2009. As part of the Collective Agreement, a historic three-year deal on wages and salaries was also agreed by the two parties for the company employees.

The three-year deal is 12% wage/salary increase for 2009, 10% increase for each of 2010 and 2011. In addition to the wage and salary agreement, the two parties have, among others, raised the current rent allowance to economic level to ensure that employees not accommodated by the company can afford decent accommodation.

Briefing some journalists on a Resolution adopted by the NEC at the end of a two-day meeting held in Accra, over the weekend, the General Secretary of the Ghana Mineworkers’ Union of GTUC, Mr. Prince William Ankrah flanked by his Deputy, Mr. Eric Kwabena Gyima added that between 2007 and 2009, some management staff in the industry including Gold Fields and AngloGold Ashanti have had their emoluments adjusted by 100% whilst a 24.5% increase demanded by the unionized workers over the period to bring the minimum basic pay of the mineworker to $500.00 is considered as “outrageous, unrealistic and unsustainable” by management of the companies.

Mr. William Ankrah warned that the above picture was seriously untenable and cannot be tolerated by the Ghana Mineworkers’ Union of GTUC any longer.

He stressed that the union would use every means at its disposal to ensure fairness and equity in the reward system in the mining industry of the country, saying “the practice of unfair wages and wages is against the laws of Ghana”.

The General Secretary therefore called on the Minerals Commission to ensure that mining companies pay their employees irrespective of their colours and nationalities fairly.

The outspoken Mr. William Ankrah lamented that the situation where expatriates occupy positions which could be competently occupied by a Ghanaian could no longer be tolerated by the union.

The National Executive Council therefore welcomed the efforts being made the Minerals Commission to address the issue, he noted.

Furthermore, the NEC of the Mineworkers called upon the Minerals Commission and other regulatory agencies to seriously monitor the influx of expatriates into the mining industry and was quick to warn that “the Ghana Mineworkers Union shall resist any attempt to bring in any expatriate whose skills are available in the country.”

To ensure job security in the mining industry, the NEC has recommended to the government to legislate the setting up of an escrow account similar to the reclamation bonds which mining companies are required to post as part of their legal requirement in operating a mine to cater for employees benefits in event of unforeseen mine closures or loss of job.

Touching on the problematic Ghana Consolidated Diamonds (GCD) in Awatia, the NEC regretted that employees of the company have not been paid for the two years and appealed to government to speed up the divestiture implementation programme and also make available monies from the consolidated fund to pay the employees their outstanding salaries and other allowances, to alleviate their sufferings.

On the upcoming oil industry, the Deputy General Secretary, Mr. Eric Kwaben Gyima and his boss added their voices to the call on government to make available details of the oil agreement(s) to the Ghanaian public as part of the tenets underpinning good governance in the country.

Touching on infrastructural development in the mining communities, the Mineworkers were saddened by the deplorable road networks and the general infrastructural deficit in the mining communities and therefore urged the government and the mining companies to tackle these problems.