We can only begin laying off workers after 5 years - MiDA

This is because the Director of Communications and Outreach at the Millenium Development Authority (MiDA) has said under the signed concessionaire they can only dismiss staff of the ECG after five years.

Speaking on Accra FM Pamela Djamson-Tetteh said they are all concerned about job security so they have put in measures to prevent any retrenchment for now.

“As we speak there is no provision at ECG where workers cannot be retrenched. Workers can be laid off at any time at ECG as of today but we are saying that under the concessionaire regime when the PSP takes off, we are insisting that there is a provision that the concessionaire is not allowed to retrench ECG workers for five years."

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“So it’s an improvement on the current situation. So, for five years the concessionaire is not allowed to retrench any worker at ECG and we have given ECG workers this assurance. Even after five years, there are labour laws that we have in Ghana that are effective which currently all organisations are bound by.”

The Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU) has earlier argued that the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact would have a negative impact on the ECG.

READ ALSO: PUWU aggrieved by ACEP’s call for staff to be fired

This has led to series of demonstration and strikes by the members of the Union.

The government is set to lease ECG to a private company for 25 years as part of the second compact of the Millennium Challenge Account signed by the Government in August 2014.

But President Mahama earlier tweeted that "the Millennium Challenge Compact will not lead to the privatisation of ECG. ECG will remain a 100% state-owned enterprise."