Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, has revealed that an agreement is likely to be reached between the workers and management of the Agricultural Development Bank (adb) by Wednesday, May 6, 2015.
“I am very optimistic and confident that we will reach a settlement by tomorrow on how to deal with the issues and particularly, for both of them to appreciate how to address their grievances and how to respect structures…” he said on Citi Prime News.
The bank is scheduled to offload a little over 100 million shares representing 75 percent ownership of the bank to raise about GH¢300 million.
The workers are however kicking against the IPO and are demanding a detailed audit into the books of the bank before taking the bank public.
The workers are also demanding the dissolution of the adb board of governors as well as the dismissal of the bank’s Managing Director over alleged misappropriation of funds and gross mismanagement.
President John Mahama on May Day announced that he has directed Haruna Iddrisu to resolve the impasse between the adb workers and management.
In an interview on Citi Prime News, the sector Minister revealed that on Monday, he had a meeting with the management of the bank and also met the union of adb on Tuesday.
He added that there will later be a joint meeting “where both management and union together with government would reached a settlement of a sort on this matter and we can convey same to the public via the media.”
Mr. Iddrisu stressed that government is giving the issue all the attention it deserves to help find an “amicable resolution to the storm and we need to restore sanity and normalcy in the operations of adb and to safeguard its corporate reputation while they deal with some of the concerns that the union have raised.”
He continued saying, “we want the restoration of full operation and we want both parties to work together…while we look into the matters that will need our further examination.”
Regarding the demand by the workers for government to look into the books of the bank before the IPO, the Employment Minister said: “Certainly, there is a government policy decision on the initial public order, there is a government decision on the sale of adb house but I’m unable to convey that to the public now.”
Source: citifmonline
