Barclay's Staffs Resume Work But Talks Continue

By Eddyson Lugangwa Posted 05 October 2006 @ 03:43 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

Accra (IBTimes.com) - Striking workers of Barclays Bank Ghana yesterday resumed work following a resolution of grievances of workers at a meeting between the workers' representatives, the Management in the presence of National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

The workers on Monday closed the doors of the Bank to customers to press demands for better working condition of service and salaries that would ensure that their pensions were guaranteed.

A visit to the banking hall on the High Street in Accra showed long queues of customers waiting to transact business, with others withdrawaing cash within the hall and at the ATMs outside.

Customers of the Bank across the country were disappointed on Monday when they went to transact business only to find the doors closed against them.

Mr Gayheart Edem Mensah, Communications Manager, told the Ghana News Agency that work had resumed while negotiations between the Workers and Management continued with the NLC and the TUC in attendance. A position paper on the way forward would be submitted on Wednesday.

Mr Mensah said work had resumed at all branches and expressed the hope that the reason for which the workers embarked on the strike would be resolved by the close of the week. Customers heaved a sigh of relief on the resumption of work by the workers of the Bank, but said it was wrong for workers to just stop work and hold them to ransom due to issues that had nothing to do with them.

"I had to go home yesterday without money to pay my staffs because the Bank was closed and the ATM was not working either," one customer told GNA.

GNA checks revealed that the strike action affected Barclays Bank branches in Cape Coast, Kumasi, Sunyani, Tamale, Tema and Koforidua.