A Talensi resident and Constituency Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Solomon TTB has alleged that workers at the Shaanxi mine now Earl International Group Ghana Gold Ltd (EIGGGL) are subjected to some level of unfair treatment in line with their duty.
He made the revelation during an engagement with Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen of Apexnewsgh.com on their flagship development programme dubbed “SPEAKOUT UPPER EAST” on Monday, September 19, 2022.
According to Mr. Solomon TTB, the government, duty bearers, stakeholders and CEO of Earl International Group Ghana Gold Ltd (EIGGGL) should as a matter of urgency organize a round table discussion because to him, “there is a lot behind what we are seeing. The workers who are at Shaanxi now Earl International, you people need to engage them, a very serious mine that is engaged in large scale mining, their salary should be of concern” He said
“I am telling you that those people are more and less like they are working by day. They are working by day because, the moment you go to work they will mark your pay for the day, but the day you did not go to work, that day they won’t mark and you won’t get anything. And there is no mining firm in this country that is doing by day unless you are a casual worker or they are engaging you to come and do construction work for them”.
“And if they employ you and you are asking for some days off, those days you are asking for, they will grant you alright but they won’t pay you for those days. If they grant you, you don’t have money to collect from them. If you are a professional teacher and you ask for permission from your school head and your school head grants you permission, do they write comptroller and accountant general not to pay you because you didn’t come to school? If you work with the Mineral commission and you ask for permission from your boss and it is granted does the government of Ghana refuse to pay you? Why are they allowing them to do this? These are some of the things going on there and we are not happy. They are our brothers and we want them to live a responsible life. So, they should be well compensated, they should be well paid”. He stressed
“I don’t think that a diploma teacher teaching in Tola will not be paid less because he is working in a remote community. His colleague in Accra and the one at Tola receive the same salary. For example, If Newmonth Ghana gold mine is paying their PRO Ghc 20,000, a PRO in Earl International should be paid Ghc 20,000 too” he emphasized
He further added, “If you went to work and there is an institutional failure at the site, they will not mark you for the day. Even though you went to work alright, they will not mark you for the day”. Mr. TTB alleged
However, reacting to Solomon TTB’s position on maltreatment of workers at the Earl International Group Ghana Gold Limited, the Union branch Secretary of Ghana mine workers Union Solomon Yintota refuted the claim.
According to him, “In mining, we have 24 working days. We work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and 24 days a month. But if you worked more than 24 days, they calculate them as extra days because that is your rest day you have used to work. So, within the 24 days, the rest of the 6 days are meant for you to rest whether you asked for permission or you’re on leave. So, because you are entitled to work for 24 days, you have to take off 6 days. So, if you asked for permission for 3 or 4 days, it will not affect your 24 days. Assuming my salary is Ghc 2000.00, it will be based on the 24 days”.
“So, if he is saying if worker asked for permission they won’t pay him, it is not within the 24 days and every institution has rules and regulation. So, if you are not there to know this is how we do it you won’t understand”.
However, Mr. Yintota agreed to the fact that the payment issue needs to be addressed
“Even though we have some issues with the company we need to address especially as he was sighting example with payment of workers like PRO in some other areas that are very perfect. But in the institution we are, they started from somewhere and get to somewhere”. Mr. Yintota admits
Source: Apexnewsgh.com
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