Organised Labour, comprising the Trades Union Congress, Public Sector Workers, and Ghana Federation of Labour, has announced a strike action starting from Monday, July 15, 2024, over the approval of the deal to sell 4 hotels of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to Rock City Hotel Limited, which belongs to the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong.
The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, who is also in charge of Ghana’s pension sector, stated that the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) had approved the sale of the 60% share of the four hotels, which are the Labadi Beach Hotel, La Palm Royal Beach Resort, Elmina Beach Resort, and Ridge Royal Hotel.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, July 11, 2024, Baffour-Awuah clarified that the authority only directed SSNIT to halt the process for the sale of the shares of the hotels in order to look into certain issues which have now been resolved.
Reacting to this in a joint statement issued on Friday, July 12, 2024, Organised Labour stated that it still stands by its position that the deal to sell the hotels was not in the interest of Ghanaian workers, and which it told President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in a meeting on June 25, 2024.
It went ahead to instruct all workers in Ghana not to go to work from Monday till SSNIT announces the termination of the deal to sell the shares of the four hotels.
“We recall that on 28th June, 2024, the Board of NPRA issued a directive to SSNIT to suspend the negotiation with Rock City Hotel Ltd. We, therefore, find it extremely difficult to understand how and why NPRA would turn around to approve such a flawed deal two weeks after the directive.
“Organised Labour would like to reiterate its well-known position that the proposed sale of SSNIT’s shares in the four hotels is not in the best interest of Ghanaian workers. We, therefore, demand that SSNIT terminates the process immediately,” part of the statement reads.
It added, “From Monday, 15th July, 2024, all workers in Ghana must not go to work until SSNIT publicly announces the termination of the process for the sale of its shares in the hotels.”
Read the full statement below:
