Staff of the Volta River Authority (VRA) have resumed activities to protest against allegations of a takeover of some properties of the Authority.
It follows what the workers say is a breach of contract by the management of the VRA in the processes of protecting the assets of the authority.
A statement issued by the workers and copied to indicated their decision to dissociate themselves from a letter on repowering the T3 Thermal plant and embarking on other legitimate actions to back their demands.
“We wish to put on record that leadership of the Staff Groups dissociates itself from the letter sent to the Hon. Minister of Power on the subject, “Takoradi 3(T3) Repowering Project” by VRA Management.”
According to the statement, the Committee set up by VRA failed to engage the leadership of the staff groups before submitting a letter to the Minister of Power on the subject of repowering of the Takoradi T3 power plant.
The workers believe the action run contrary to an agreement of engaging them on the way forward before any action is taken.
“On the contrary, VRA Management unilaterally wrote to the Ministry of Power on the way forward of the Repowering of the T3 Plant without recourse to the staff groups.”
While maintaining its stance on the T3 and Mines Reserve Plant, the workers’ union is reiterating its call that management should take immediate steps to stop any persons from interfering with the parcels of land in Tema as the company cannot guarantee their safety.
Subsequently, the workers of VRA have resolved not to participate in any a series of corporate –wide activities and joint consultative meetings with VRA management.
Though a safety awareness day celebration has been postponed as a result of the action by the workers, they are expected to partake in the long service award ceremony scheduled for November 29.
Meanwhile the union says it will embark on any other legitimate action to back demands for the survival of the authority without notice to the VRA management.
A similar action embarked by the workers in August this year, culminated in a meeting with the Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor who chided the VRA for failing to inform the Ministry about their concerns before going public with them.
“I really wish that they had contacted us so that we could engage. If we had failed based on the engagement, then we could think of the next step,” John Jinapor said.
Though Mr. Jinapor denied of officially being informed of the matter at the time, he stressed that the meeting is necessary to iron out any differences.
“There’s been some miscommunication or misinformation. Neither I nor the Ministry have received any formal complaint from the staff of VRA. We heard that they had issued a statement and I saw it on social media and consulted my Minister and he gave some directives,”
He added, “Today we are meeting with the VRA management and the Union as well so that we take all these issues, explain them and I’m sure that if they also have some suggestions or issues, they’ll bring that on board.”
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