The Ghana Mineworkers’ Union (GMWU) wants mining policies regarding expatriate recruitment, skills shortage and income in the mining industry reviewed.
It believes the review must be addressed by all players including the Chamber of Mines and the Minerals Commission.
The Union had earlier called on government and mining companies operating in the country to establish fair, equitable and transparent job evaluation systems to ensure Ghanaian employees get the right salary.
Speaking to Citi Business News the General Secretary of the Ghana Mineworkers Union Prince William Ankrah said salary disparities between Ghanaians and their colleague expatriates with the same skills is extremely wide and must be addressed immediately.
“There is a problem with equity and indeed the ratios are ugly and they are ugly to the extent that we have top management expatriate, that is, those who are put in charge of the operations of the companies in Ghana are earning between $450,000 to $1,000,000 a year. This exclude the options that they pay them as part of their relocation model as against what they pay their Ghanaian counter parts.”
The Mineworker Union General Secretary said ‘when it comes to skills its appears the mining industry is paying for colour and not for skills and these are issues that need to be challenged going forward’.
“The issue about income is very important and nobody at the turn of this century should ever think that the logic of paying for colour and not skills should be entertained. I think that we should shift from that era that expatriates rule the world, that belongs to history. We have nationals here who have also gone out because they were not getting their values here and we think that pattern must change.”
Prince William Ankrah told Citi Business News that in 2015 salary disparities would be among the issues they will keep an eye on and will keep discussions on it running.
By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana
