Labour Troubles Brew At First Allied Savings And Loans

Inside reports from Allied Savings and Loans Company indicate that the management of the company has violated the constitutional and fundamental right of their workers to freedom of association.

To that extent, the company has unilaterally denied their workers membership of the Union of Industry Commerce and Finance workers (UNICOF) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress. Consequently the management has stopped dues deductions to the UNICOF since November 2008.

A source at the company¢s head office in Kumasi say the microfinance firm took this action based on the ill-advice of its legal advisors.

According to the source, the management began this move at a time when the UNICOF and management had concluded negotiating a Collective Agreement but which management has refused to sign.

Since management took this posture last year, it was alleged that the UNICOF had made several efforts to meet management to resolve the misunderstanding but management had given several excuses to avoid the meeting.

This was again manifested when the latest meeting scheduled for January 15th 2009 was postponed at the instance of management because its legal consultant, Dr Seth Twum who had to be present, was alleged to be indisposed and therefore the meeting has been rescheduled to 25 February 2009.

When the Deputy General Secretary of UNICOF, Mr John Esiape was contacted, he confirmed have confirmed the impending February meeting but declined to comment about the alleged cessation of dues payment as well as management¢s alleged refusal to sign an agreement on Conditions of Service for the workers of First Allied Savings and Loans.

Observers have described as bizarre the reasons the company has given for its actions and that they are just attempts to frustrate the UNICOF and its members at the company, hinting that should this last meeting attempt fail no one can predict the next line of action of the union and its affected members.

It would be recalled that last November UNICOF had to call off a strike action sanctioned by the National Labour Commission at the last minute (due to the general elections) when it had some misunderstanding with the management of ProCredit, another savings and loans company. This time around it is hoped that the NLC would intervene quickly and bring the parties to an amicable settlement as the situation has the potential to explode. ###

Meanwhile, reports also say the wrongful application of salary reviews was threatening the company as management refused to apply the 20 % increment agreed on for intermediaries.