Workers of the Ghana Railway Company Limited are currently up in arms with the government for its inability to sustain operations.
Workers of the Company in a press encounter in Takoradi indicated that they have not received salaries for the past four months since there are no monies in the bank accounts of the company.
Mr. Godwill Ntarmah, leader of the workers indicated that the company is broke and all efforts to meet the president to speak out their challenges have proven unsuccessful.
Read the full statement below
22 August, 2023
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, we have called you here this morning to update you on the current happenings in the Ghana Railway Limited (GRCL).
It is important to admit that the standard gauge rail line construction on the western line from Kojokrom to Huni-valley is progressing steadily.
However, the Ghana Railway Company Limited (GRCL), a fully state-owned company of the Republic of Ghana with no shareholders and a staff strength of over one thousand workers, is facing serious challenges operating on the existing Narrow gauge rail line which is in a very bad state coupled with the old and aged rolling stock resulting in series of derailments every now and then.
The above challenges have resulted in serious financial constraints which easily qualify the company as a Highly indebted Poor Company (HIPC).
As we speak, salaries go into three (3) or four (4) months’ arrears before some efforts are made to effect some payments. Again, SSNIT payments are in arrears from October 2022 till date which has compelled SSINT to take GRCL to court to enforce payments. The company is owing GCB Bank millions of cedis while workers’ Tier 2 payments have also not been settled since May 2022 till date.
Workers’ own deductions to their various credit Unions such as GPHA credit union and RUCOMAS have not been paid since September 2021.
Another issue of great concern to us is the determination of the fate of the GRCL Retrenched staff of 2006 which needs to be addressed by the Government.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, it is the expectation of workers that since the company is a state-owned one, we would have thought that some government support from the state, would have been extended to the company as it was the practice in the past, but all that we hear is, the company is a limited liability company and therefore should be able to work and generate enough to fund itself. This assertion, we disagreed.
The truth of the matter is that, with the challenges enumerated earlier, it is impossible for the company to generate enough funds to sustain itself and to operate as a going concern.
It will interest you to note that frantic efforts have been made by the leadership of the Union to have engagements with the President of the Republic His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Adoo to have interactions on the current situation facing GRCL but all have proven futile.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, we have no option now than to engage you and use your
medium to appeal to His Excellency the President of the Republic for an engagement with us to save the GRCL from total collapse.
We are frustrated and disillusioned and we believe through your medium the President will hear us and give us the needed audience.
Thank you for coming.
FOR ON BEHALF OF RAILWAY WORKERS
GODWILL NTARMAH GENERAL SECRETARY