PSC Tema Shipyard: Intervene, stop wanton dismissals, victimisation of staff – Minority tells Minister

The Ranking Member of Parliament’s Roads and Transport Committee, Governs Kwame Agbodza wants the Minister of Transport to intervene in the alleged dismissals and interdiction of staff at the PSC Tema Shipyard by the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Alexander Adusei.

In an interview with Starr Fm’s Ibrahim Alhassan, the Ranking Member said the victimisation at the port is alarming calling on the Minister to stop Dr. Adusei from carrying out his alleged threats of making some staff redundant by Friday, July 29, 2022.

“I don’t know how this actually improves the services at the Port. His focus should be on how to get the vessels and other things coming there so that people can have job security,” he noted.

On the CEO’s decision to outsource some jobs to a private entity, Kwame Governs Agbodza stated the move has dire consequences asking the management to rather push for inhouse training to make personnel efficient.

Dr. Adusei has been accused of engaging in “clear acts of divide and rule”, allegedly resulting in a culture of silence and low morale among the staff.

There are two unions at PSC Tema Shipyard, namely the National Union of Seamen, Ports and Allied workers (NUSPAW) and the Maritime and Dockworkers’ Union (MDU). The NUSPAW holds the bargaining certificate, and Dr. Adusei is accused of using leaders of NUSPAW to attack MDU workers.

‘Unlawful interdictions’

A letter written to the Secretary General of TUC by two union leaders, namely Nicholas N. Kotey and Ismaila Ibrahim, raised the issue of interdiction of five workers for about 10 months when the Labour Regulation says “a worker cannot be interdicted for more than 6 months”.

These two union leaders have also been interdicted now for writing the letter 'Bad management practices and terrible human relations, bane of struggling companies – The PSC Tema Shipyard story'.

They had argued that the interdiction of the said workers had gone beyond six months, as stipulated by the labour laws of the country.

According to them, “if a worker was on interdiction for six months, the person must be called back because it was presumed that within six months, any investigations that were done would have been completed and necessary decisions would have been taken”.

Dr. Adusei finally ended up dismissing the said workers, “backdating the dismissal letters…”

Appeal to President

The leadership of the workers wants the President to intervene to save the situation. According to them, “the prevailing industrial atmosphere at the PSC TEMA Shipyard is that of virtually no productive work, unwarranted or wrong transfers of staff, victimization and intimidation, amongst others, by the Managing Director”.

“It is important to mention that the infrastructural size of the Tema Shipyard gives it a competitive edge over other ship repairs companies within the sub-region, such as the Dakarmore, Nigerdocks, and Corana. What is needed in PSC Tema Shipyard is a kind of leadership that can provide strategic leadership and motivate the staff to be united in pursuing the objectives of increased productivity which will attract clients to the company,” the union leaders stated.

“Unfortunately, instead of promoting industrial harmony at PSC Tema Shipyard, the administrative style of the current Managing Director has divided the staff and promoted industrial strife in the company. It is a fact that the management style of the Managing Director undermines industrial peace in PSC TEMA Shipyard which has contributed to the reduced vessel call in the company,” they claimed.

They added: “The fact that the company has no client now confirms our assertion that despite his self-praise, it is clear that he is running PSC Tema Shipyard down. With respect to the aforementioned, it is our firm belief and expectation that you will intervene in the recall of the interdicted staff, and consider a Public Private Partnership for the Shipyard to inject the needed capital, competency in management, and the business modules that will restore its past glories.”