The Ex-employees of erstwhile UT and Capital Banks have welcomed the assurance by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Attah that the Exit Pay will be paid before Christmas this year.
The Minister gave this assurance in an interview with Kwame Sefa-Kayi on Peace Fm on the 16th of November 2018.
Over the past 15 months, the staff of the affected banks have been living in despondency; some of our colleagues are bedridden and others have lost their lives.
The aggrieved staff reportedly wrote petitions to His Excellency the President, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana amongst others.
"We have also engaged in various media engagements and taken other initiatives to highlight our plight. The assurance by the Minister of Finance is therefore, a welcome relief and we are hopeful that the Exit Pay will be paid as indicated to help alleviate our financial distress. Once again, we express our appreciation to the media for giving us the platform to air our grievances", they said.
Background
On the 14th of August, 2017, ex-employees of the defunct UT and Capital Banks were hit with the shocking news that in line with section 123 of the Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930), Bank of Ghana had revoked the licenses of our respective Banks due to severe impairment of capital and has appointed Messrs Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah both Directors of PricewaterhouseCoopers (Ghana) Limited as Joint Receivers for the purpose of winding down the affairs of the two Banks.
As a result of the receivership, the Joint Receivers terminated the contracts of staff numbering about 1,200. On the 19th of September, 2017 the employees engaged Union of Commerce, Industry and Finance (UNICOF) to negotiate an Exit Pay on our behalf.
On the 13th of November, 2017 negotiations were held with the Joint Receiver and as per the Joint Receivers’ letter dated 15th January, 2018, an Exit Pay was agreed for all ex-staff.
However, 14 months after the liquidation, staff entitlements remain unpaid.
Recovery of over GHS400m by Joint Receivers
On the 9th of October, 2018 the Joint Receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers (Ghana) announced in a statement that it had realized over GHC 400million through sale of assets of the defunct banks and recovery efforts to help clear the liabilities of the banks.
The employees appealed for the Exit Pay to be paid since it was just about 10 per cent of the amount recovered to help alleviate their plight.
On the 16th of November, 2018 the Minister of Finance gave the assurance that the Exit Pay will be paid before 25th December, 2018.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com