China Jiangxi International denies allegation

Accra, June 11, GNA - The Management of China Jiangxi Corporation for International Economic and Technical Cooperation (CJIC) has denied workers' allegations of wrongful and frequent dismissals; under payment; failure to provide them with safety gadgets and payment of compensation. Workers of the company working on the Akatsi-Tadzewu-Dzodze-Akanu road in the Volta Region had complained to the GNA about what they described as bad treatment by the Management.

Reading a press statement at a press conference in Accra on Friday in response to the accusation, Mr Vincent Pu, Interpreter to the Project, said: "The Management of China Jiangxi Corporation for International Economic and Technical Cooperation (CJIC) was very surprised and shocked on Tuesday 8th June 2010 when a publication captioned "Workers accuse Chinese Company of Maltreatment" was published on no less a media than the Ghanaweb and sourced to Ghana News Agency, then subsequently on myjoyonline and other media websites.

"The story sought to say that tension was mounting among the 221 Ghanaian workforce of the company engaged on the Akatsi-Tadzewu-Dzodze-Akanu road over bad treatment by the Chinese management.

"The story also said among other things that management effected wrongful and frequent dismissals, under payment, failure to provide them with safety gadgets and refusal to pay compensation to workers who died or suffered payment disabilities on duty.

"The specially calculated malicious publication sourced an unnamed spokesperson who said the company did not provide any medical package for the workers.

"The anonymous spokesperson also accused management of frustrating attempts by the workers to form a union under the Construction and Building Material Workers Union (CBMWU) of the GTUC.

"Now in our response, the Management of China Jiangxi Corporation for International Economic and Technical Cooperation hereby state that all the accusations or allegations are NOT TRUE. They are mere fabrications meant to drag the good name of OUR COMPANY into the mud.

"To start with, even the picture used in the story has nothing to do with us. You may get to understand from our Consultant that we have not started doing our U-Drains or what we call gutters laying works at all. "The present total number of Ghanaian employees at our project is 189, including the 40 newly-employed workers in May. Hence, the so-called 221 workers was fictitious and far from the truth. Besides, no tension had mounted at the site at all. On 8th June, 2010 our monthly site meeting was successfully held as scheduled with the attendance of our client Ghana Highway Authority, our Consultant Twum Boafo and Partners and other invited agencies, from whom you can confirm that our undergoing works are smooth and well-regulated.

"No one had been wrongfully dismissed let alone the so-called "frequent dismissals". According to our Payrolls, you can find that our employee number is steadily increasing month by month. Although some employees had left, the management made the decisions on the basis of the complete negotiation and respect. Few were let go because of stealing and negligence which had already caused huge damages financially and technically. "With regards the under-payment and the workers not knowing the wage ranges, we hereby state that all workers are duly informed their particular salary rate and the mode and time of payment before they are recruited. They have Time cards which states the daily hours they have earned. If there is any missing or wrongly-calculated hours, everybody is free to cross check his/her hours whenever they want and we always amend accordingly as soon as possible.

"As for medical care, we fully pay every employee whenever the bills are brought to us. We have some receipts here to show.

"The company had duly compensated the family of the worker who passed away in the Quarry Accident and we have documents here to prove including the police and hospital statements.

"The unfortunate worker who lost a leg suffered from a road accident by a tipper truck and not a pay-loader as reported. He was a driver's assistant then. We reported it and brought the tipper driver immediately to Dzodze Police Station as it happened. Afterwards, we bore all medical bills accrued and we hired one full-equipped ambulance with escort to take him home in the Northern Region when his family requested to have him brought home. "We had never frustrated nor stopped our employees from joining workers union. We have an apology letter from the Volta Regional Secretary of GTUC to show you. Some workers who decided to form a union ended up causing havoc among themselves. They beat up their local people and locked the main gate to the site, thus holding the entire company and its workers to ransom for one and half hours. One of them was eventually taken to Court. "We are law-abiding professionals rated among the top 225 International contractors in the world. We would never do anything to maltreat any employee from Ghana for that matter.

"Against this we also request the Ghana News Agency and all media website to withdraw the story and correct the erroneous impression they have created about China Jiangxi International.

"If this is not done, we would exploit every avenue to seek justice." The GNA was performing its statutory duty when it carried the original story and has published this rejoinder because the Constitution of the Fourth Republic enjoins the Agency to publish rejoinders and not because of the veiled threat of legal action.