Workers Angry Over Salary Deductions

Tension is mounting as hundreds of workers whose salaries are channelled through the Social Security Bank Limited (SSB Bank Ltd.) in Cape Coast have threatened to withdraw their accounts from the bank over what they described as "unwanted deductions from their hard earned incomes by the bank".

The aggrieved workers maintained that for some time now, deductions from their salaries keep on rising from month to month until recently when some of them became bold to confront the out-gone manager who explained that the deductions were only "Commissions on turnover" (COT) of ?10,000 and Ledger Fees of another ?10,000 per customer which they (customers) feel deplete the salaries they are entitled to over the past few years.

The affected customers, mostly tutors from the various second cycle schools in Cape Coast, lecturers from the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Primary school teachers as well as other organisations have decided to take to the streets to register their protest against the deductions.

During interaction with this reporter, some customers who wanted anonymity made wild allegations accusing the top hierarchy of the bank at its headquarters in Accra of malfeasance and turning around to make amends through the deductions of workers salaries apparently to fill the gap before the axe falls on them, they stressed.

Following the serious allegations levelled against the management, your investigative Chronicle went to the bank to seek some clarification from the manager on December 13, last year, only to be met with disappointment because the former manager had been transferred and a new manager, one Mr.

Emmanuel John Bart Plange, a citizen of Cape Coast himself, had assumed duty some few days.

When this reporter posed some questions over the so called unprecedented deductions, Bart Plange said he could not grant any interview unless he sought permission from headoffice.

The new manager, therefore, rang his headoffice to speak to his bosses in Accra only to be told by a lady that the bosses were having a meeting.

As a result, Plange pleaded with this reporter for another meeting the next day by which time he would have sought clearance to speak.

Then on Friday when this reporter called at the office again at about l0:00am, Plange who had already informed his bosses about our interaction, rang to announce the arrival of the Chronicle representative back to his office and after speaking to someone on the line, the man requested him to let me speak to him.

During the telephone conversation that ensued, the officer at the headoffice whose name he gave as Mr. Kofi Asafo-Adjei, Head of Retail Banking in Accra, pointed out that for the 23 out of 25 years that the Social Security Bank had been in existence as a national banking service it was not charging a pesewa from its customers until only about two years ago when it decided that for the bank to survive to serve its numerous customers a processing fee of ?10,000 and a maintenance fee of ?6,000 should be charged thus bringing the total deductions to only ?16,000 and nothing more.

Commenting on the allegations of malfeasance against the top hierarchy, Asafo-Adjei refuted any financial mismanagement of any kind in the bank which is among the five best banks in the country.

He explained that it is not only SSB Bank Ltd that deducted some monies from its customers for survival but all banks and appealed to the aggrieved customers to rescind their decision to withdraw their accounts from the bank, stressing that those meagre deductions will enable the bank to stand on its feet to serve its customers better.