Some workers of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) are demanding their Director General’s tenure should not be extended over mismanagement of the state broadcasting company.
The workers mounted banners outside the premises of the organization indicating their demands. According to them, the Director General, Professor Amin Alhassan, whose tenure has just ended must go.
Samuel Nathaniel Kevor, the Divisional Chairman of the Public Sector Workers Union of GBC, speaking on behalf of the group, underscored that the Director General’s performance has been significantly unsatisfactory.
“So we said that let’s wait until the four-year tenure ends, and then we will be asking the appointing authority to respectfully understand the governing system of the organization and that over 1000 workers GBC say they are not satisfied with the four-year tenure of the director general… So it is not that we are seeking his removal, what the workers are saying is that they are pleading with the appointing authority not to renew or extend his contract.”
Samuel Nathaniel Kevor
He indicated that their demand is based on the fact that the Director General has been unable to make working tools available to workers.
“That has been the reality on the grounds, a factual one. I ask workers from divisions, various departments, and units, about the basic tools we work with, such as A4 sheets, printers, toners, microphones, headphones, cameras, and so many things, we can mention; the list is tall. These are some of the things that for the past year we didn’t get. What we expected is not what we got… So many factors inhibit the workers from meeting their targets because they do not have enough tools.”
Samuel Nathaniel Kevor
Further, Mr Kevor emphasized that against public perception over the years of their consistent request for the removal of several GCB Director Generals, they intended not to have this conversation on air.
“This is not an issue I will have necessarily spoken about on air because I believe internal matters should be discussed under internal arrangements. Therefore, the issue came into the public and management severed relationship with the union [and] that got this issue into the public domain which is rather unfortunate.
“Workers were agitating behind the scenes and closed doors for some time about a year or two ago but the union wanted to change the narrative that the wrong impression or perception of our GCB workers to the public. Anytime we are disappointed with our director general we always sack them. Only that we didn’t want to put it to the public. We even wanted to write a petition. There was an agreement on that but what we were concerned about was we did not want our issue to come to the public.”
Samuel Nathaniel Kevor
Union Blames Management For Making Issues Public
Mr. Kevor blamed management for bringing the issue to the public by apprehending some workers who were members of the union.
“Management brought this to the public by severing relationships with members of the union, an illegality we have considered that member should have their free opinions. And it came to one of the newspapers that and we argued. It brought apprehension to GCB workers and not GBC workers alone. Because that decision that they upheld will affect the general well-being of trade union activities in the country.”
Samuel Nathaniel Kevor
He however indicated that the union had cooperated with the management from the inception of the challenges.
“If you pay attention to my earlier submission, I particularly stated that that perception has been there and that is why this time the director general was allowed to run his four-year peaceful tenure. The union cooperated very well from the beginning. Sometimes when you realize there is a challenge with management, the union comes in to help in certain ways. Revenue collections and debt collections and all of that.”
Samuel Nathaniel Kevor
He thus charged the appointing authority to pay attention to the situation. Mr. Kevor proposed that the appointing authority must appoint an industry player because broadcasting is a complex issue. He believes such a person will understand the dynamism, the business, and the job, among others.
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