Aug 2, 2017
The management of the HFC Bank and the General Secretary of ICU both apologized for the misunderstanding over the handling of its move to outsource the services of its 54 drivers across the country.
Management of the bank in a closed door meeting late Monday with the leadership of the Industrial Commercial Union (ICU), the mother union of the staff and the bank’s consultants, Gamey and Gamey, it was agreed by the parties to renegotiate the entire redundancy package for the drivers.
As part of the move towards resolving the conflict, it was agreed that the drivers resumed work immediately while management followed due process in going about the severance exercise as stipulated in Ghana’s Labour Act 651.A memo dated August 1, 2017 to the staff from the Managing Director (MD) of the HFC Bank, Robert Le Hunte, ADR Daily cited, said “Effective September 1, 2017, management has decided to outsource the services of our drivers and motor dispatch riders to Mon-Tran Limited and have advised them accordingly.
“This is a practice that is commonly adopted by a number of banks that we compete against in the industry. The decision has therefore resulted in all drivers and dispatch riders jobs being made redundant,” it said.
Le Hunte, however assured the affected workers that the bank will fully comply with the tenets of the labour laws of the country.
“We are in discussions with the union and measures are in place to mitigate the effect of the severance and to pay the affected staff what is due them in line with Section 65 of the Labour Act, Act 651,” the MD stated in the memo.
In addition, the memo said “As your Managing Director, it is my job to ensure that the three constituents under my span of control are equally managed and attended to i.e. our customers, shareholders and our employees.
In the case of the latter, it said “it is important that from time to time we are called upon to take difficult decisions and actions to safeguard the well-being of the majority of our employees and ensure the future profitability of our institution.”
Morgan Ayawine, Deputy General Secretary In-Charge of Operations for the ICU confirmed the meeting and the new posture of management of the bank saying, “We met management of the bank on Monday and they agreed they have not followed due process as stipulated in the labour Act.”
He disclosed that another meeting among the parties has been scheduled for Thursday August 3, 2017 for actual negotiations to be discussed and possibly concluded by the parties to ensure peaceful resolution of the redundancy exercise.
The affected workers on Monday massed up at the head office of the bank in Accra to protest their severance, claiming that due process was not followed.
By: Francis Tandoh/adrdaily.com
