'Your demand to peg salaries to US dollar untenable' – VALCO to workers

The management of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) has said its workers are demanding to have their salaries pegged to the United States dollar. This comes after over 300 workers, led by the union executives made the demand following their last salary adjustment which took place on September 1, 2021. But recent agitation by workers at the company in the last few days has resulted in failure to reach an agreement with VALCOs management and therefore resulted in protests on Friday October 28. VALCO in a statement however clarified that the salary of the Ghanaian worker is not indexed in the United States but rather in Ghanaian local currency, the Cedi. “The demand for workers to have their salaries pegged to US Dollar is untenable and must be disregarded,” portions of the statement read. “We however recongize that both internal and external factors may cause an appreciation or depreciation of the cedi to the US Dollar and other foreign currencies, a situation that may impact the salaries of workers from time-time,” VALCO explained. In addition to this, management of VALCO said workers have since rejected a 22 percent salary increment in demand of the dollar equivalent. According to the management, staff of the company described the increment as insufficient and staged a demonstration in the early hours of Monday, October 31, 2022, to register their displeasure. The workers are therefore calling for better conditions of service and the immediate dismissal of some management members whom they describe as retirees. See the statement below: MA/FNOQ