Adnan Adams Mohammed
Workers of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) have been warned against their intended industrial action as management considers it as illegal.
The Managing Director of the company in a letter to the workers indicated that any staff involved in any illegal strike will be punished according to the relevant laws.
Members of the General Transport Petroleum Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU), last week, announced its intention to embark on a series of actions in support of its call for the revamping of TOR. The planned industrial action by GTPCWU would precede the May Day celebrations. However, the MD in the letter noted that, there are procedures to address their challenges and grievances and until such procedures have been exhausted, any industrial action was illegal.
“Kindly be aware of the illegality of any such actions under clauses 168 to 171 of the Labour Act and the consequences thereunder for participants/staff involved. Please be aware of section 171 in particular which emphasises the term ‘picketing’ which is only lawful in furtherance of a lawful strike/industrial action”, Jerry K. Hinson cautioned.
“Kindly be advised finally that participation of staff in any illegal action or picketing or indeed any act that purports to disrupt the activities of the Company or possibly undermine the authority of the Shareholder will be subjected to the prescribed ramifications under the relevant laws.”
Meanwhile, the Energy Minister, Mathew Opoku Prempeh has revealed that some US$2.5 million worth of cendensate has gone missing at TOR when he was assuring the workers of the government’s effort to revive TOR.
“I gave TOR a new business opportunity in the premix fuel market that all the condensate from Ghana Gas should be used for blending premix fuel. The last time I heard, over $2.5 million worth of condensate had gone missing from TOR”, Dr Prempeh said in an interview last week when reacting to the tension at TOR between management and workers.
“If we all want TOR working, and we don’t want another ECG in TOR, [such things] will break the back of government”, he decried.
“TOR has over $500 million worth of debt sitting on its books and go and look at how the debt is accumulated– people bring their crude to refine and then they record crude losses.
“You don’t pay taxes for it to go down the drain. You pay taxes for an efficient running of government.
“The government, I can tell you, is doing so much work to bring TOR to work. There are proposals lying up in TOR, SIGA, Attorney General’s [department], and the finance ministry all having a look”, he added.
Dr Prempeh further noted that, “Getting it right is a difficult proposition we are working on. And we will work diligently to get Ghanaians what is good.”
