The Managing Director of Metro Mass Transit Limited has said the company is considering downsizing the number of employees to enable it sustain its operations.
The “pro-poor” state transport company has seen a sharp decline in its revenue due to low patronage of its buses as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The situation has led to the company’s inability to consistently pay salaries of its over 3 thousand employees.
Managing Director of MMT, Albert Adu Boahen in an interview indicated that, he will initiate processes to cut down on the number of staff to enable the company operate efficiently.
“One option which I will say will not be very popular is to downsize the number of employees, so that the very little that we generate can cater for all. …I have over 3000 employees on my pay roll. I’m not generating that much that will be able to meet the salary demands of workers because {we are} trying to protect the health of Ghanaians, which is very paramount… The board will look at it in conjunction with the ministry of transport {to} take the next step.”
Workers of MMT embarked on a sit down strike last week to demand their two month’s salary arears from government for the month of May and June.
Deputy Managing Director in charge of Operations and Technical, Nana Osei Bamfo at MMT made the company’s struggles public by highlighting how hard they have been hit by the pandemic.
He indicated that, “Since lockdown, from March, we didn’t work for almost a month and after the lockdown, in this social distancing situation where a bus that is supposed to be from Accra to Bolga is only loading half capacity. There are times where we can’t even meet our fuel cost”.
According to him, “nobody has been paid in the Company. We shut down with them during the lockdown, nobody has worked, we hadn’t been able to generate enough revenue to pay salaries and after the lockdown, it has been a struggle”.
However, the workers have resumed work based on the directive of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Union (GTPCWU) of the Trades Union Congress of Ghana. The directive from the mother body of the senior and junior staff union of MTT agreed with the strike action but requested that they resume work immediately. According to the National Chairman of (GTPCWU) Bernard Owusu, the request is based on the assurance from government that their arears will be settled in a week’s time.
“As I said we had a lot of discussions. These discussions started way back and they were not even coming to the table. It was also between us and the Managing Director and the management of Metro Mass with the Board. But as I speak to you now, I even had a discussion with the senior minister and other ministers and the promise is that next week Monday we are even having meeting once again with the Minister of Transport around eleven o’clock to settle all these issues.”
The (GTPCWU) however, urges government to critically consider an immediate stimulus package for the MMT to save it from collapsing.
“I will use this opportunity to caution government because the way and manner Metro Mass is being handled if care is not taking the company will collapse.”
