Vodafone workers angry with management over retirement
package
By Awudu Salami Sule, Ghanadot
Accra, July 24, Ghanadot -
Vodafone staff expressed their unhappiness over what they
described as an attempt by the management of the company to
compel them to patronize the
retirement package introduced for staff who plan to
go on voluntary retirement.
The workers accuse their employers of
violating an agreement, which stipulates that staff should
not be stampeded into signing up to the voluntary retirement
package.
The voluntary retirement package is part of a restructuring
process being undertaken by the company.
Narrating their concerns to the media, the workers said
their supervisors have been instructed by management to do
everything possible to ensure that a lot of them patronize
the facility.
They accuse their supervisors of resorting to intimidation
in an attempt to get them to subscribe to the package.
When the voluntary retirement package was announced in March
this year, some of the workers showed their excitement at
the bulky sums of money they would carry home.
Ironically the workers now seem opposed to it and the
Chairman of the Communication Workers Union, D.K. Clottey
says it all.
Management has, however, denied intimidating workers to
resign.
Head of Corporate Communications and Customer Care at
Vodafone, Major (Rtd) Albert Don Chebe, said the management
is only offering a voluntary package which workers could
decide not to sign to.
Before the takeover by Vodafone, Ghana Telecom had always
had a programme in place aimed at providing an exit strategy
to staff members who no longer wanted to be with the company
and want to trade their expertise elsewhere; either in other
sphere of business or to set up their own private
businesses.
This was, however, stalled because Ghana Telecom then could
not provide special packages to facilitate the process.
The disengagement package being offered is to enable all
4,088 workers of Vodafone to retire voluntarily.
It is calculated by adding three months’ salary of every
year served, multiplied by the total number of years the
staff has been employed at Vodafone.
Ghanadot
