The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications (GTC) has expressed worry over the announcement of a planned industrial action by the Telecoms and IT Professionals Union (TIP) which commenced today, Monday, 15 March 2021.

The TIP is made of Engineers and Technicians contracted by four sub-contractors (SBCs) who have been engaged by Huawei Technologies (a Telecommunications vendor).

The Chamber, in a statement, appealed to the union to continue to pursue their demands through negotiation and arbitration while acknowledging their right to negotiate for favourable conditions of services.

“The industry is equally working with all partners to ensure a speedy resolution of the challenge to minimize any disruptions in telecom services as this is important for the industry,” the statement said.

The Chamber assured customers of its commitment to the provision of reliable telecoms services.

Members of TIP started their strike action today over salary negotiations between the union and the management of the four sub-contractors (SBCs) who have been engaged by Hauwei Technologies Limited to maintain the technical operations of MTN, AirtelTigo and Vodafone.

The telco workers claim that the four SBCs; Linfra Ghana Limited, MP Infrastructure Ghana Limited, Reime Ghana Limited and Reliance Personal Services, have refused to enhance their remuneration over the years despite the huge profits declared annually by the telcos and Huawei.

At the current salary negotiation by the Joint Standing Negotiation Committee (JSNC), which was meant to have taken place in September 2020, the Union proposed a 20 per cent pay increase, but management locked its offer at 3 per cent, after initially offering zero per cent.

The union informed the NLC and the SBCs of the intended action in a letter dated 12 March 2021 and signed by General Secretary of the Union, Israel Edem Agbegbor.

It explained that the four SBCs have failed to act in good faith in addressing the concerns of the workers, and therefore, the union “do not wish to cooperate with management going forward until the workers’ concerns are resolved.”

“Given the above facts and conditions, we respectfully write to inform you that our earlier industrial action is coming on the 15th of March 2021 as earlier planned,” the letter further stated.