You are here: HomeNews2016 05 19Article 439995

General News of Thursday, 19 May 2016

Source: Today Newspaper

Uneasy calm at MMT after management delay promotions

MMT bus terminal MMT bus terminal

Tongues are wagging at the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) Limited over delays in workers’ promotions, Today can report.

As a result of that the workers have threatened to embark on a nationwide strike to press home their demand.

Some workers also, according to information available to Today, are considering going to court to seek for justice.

The workers complained that management was not being fair to them in delaying their promotions.

They accused management of being biased with their promotion matter.

According to our sources, some of the workers, particularly senior staff members, who once were alleged to have demanded the dissolution of the then MMT board which eventually led to the dismissal of former Managing Director, Mr. John Noble Appiah, and his deputy, Mr. John Awuku Dzirash, were sidelined for promotions.

Today gathered that those senior staff members were subsequently victimised as a result of their alleged role in getting the board dissolved.

It would be recalled that on January 12, 2015 some aggrieved workers of MMT staged a massive demonstration, where they accused the then management and board of the company of mismanagement.

They also protested management’s failure to comply with the procurement processes and other internal regulations.

And following that protest, the board was dissolved, and an audit which was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana Limited at the instance of the Ministry of Transport, later revealed that there had been lapses in the procurement processes of the company.

Among others, PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana Limited recommended the restructuring of the company in order to put effective systems and control measures in place to address the fundamental systematic problems confronting it.

However, Today gathered that ever since the workers showed their open dislike for the then management and board of the company, some top directors, who were loyal to Mr. Appiah and his deputy, have never seen eye to eye with them.

It was against this backdrop that Today gathered that the affected staff members are bent on embarking on a strike to demand what rightfully belongs to them.

Today sources noted that some senior staff members of the state-owned company were peeved for being sidelined in the company’s recent staff promotions.

Our sources revealed that even though the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations recently ordered a human resource auditing to address issues relating to promotions and job placement at MMT, management ignored the ministerial directive and went ahead to promote some junior staff over the senior ones.

The auditing, as ordered by the ministry, Today was told, was to establish why some junior staff members were promoted over senior ones, although both groups wrote the same examination which was conducted by the MMT.

The anger of the workers, Today understands, stemmed from the fact that dictates of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed between the Managing Director of MMT, Mr. Alhassan Ligbi, and both the senior and junior staff members at the instance of the ministry of employment and labour relations was respected.

To this end, the workers called on the Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, to, as a matter of urgency, intervene in the matter to bring sanity into the company.

However, several efforts made by Today to get the acting Head of Communications of MMT, Bernice Akologo, to respond to the allegations levelled against her outfit failed as calls and text messages placed on her 0244738899 went unanswered.

For instance, one of the text and Whatsapp messages which was sent to Miss Akologo yesterday at 10:57 a.m., read: “I will appreciate if you could respond to my calls. It is crucial I speak to you as required by our profession to seek your clarification on allegations levelled against your outfit regarding discrimination and favouritism that has plagued staff promotions.”

But the acting Head of Communications of MMT did not respond to any of our text messages, and not even the one sent by the editor of the paper.