Two hundred retired workers of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) have resolved to drag their former employer to court for failing to put them on the bank's special pension scheme.

The ex-workers, who include general managers, branch managers, managers, divisional heads and some junior staff, said they had decided to resort to the courts because for seven years their employer had failed to settle the issue amicably.

The Chairman of the Retired Staff Association of GCB (RESAG), Mr Alex Yaw Nsiah, announced the resolution when he briefed the press in Accra on Thursday after an emergency meeting.

He explained that the objective of the special pension scheme was to reward long service and devotion to duty, as well as serve as incentive and security for members of staff generally.

Mr Nsiah said the irony was that staff who were declared redundant in 1989 were presently benefiting from the scheme, while those who were encouraged to stay longer had been denied it, contrary to the bank's collective bargaining agreement.

He said the pension scheme clearly spelt out that members of staff who, at the time of their compulsory or voluntary retirement, had served the bank for a minimum period of 15 years qualified for the scheme.

Mr Nsiah said the ill-treatment meted out to the loyal hardworking staff did not augur well for its corporate image, since it could send the wrong signals to the young staff, as well as investors.

He said it was unfair for the bank to write to its branches in 2003 notifying them of the abrogation of the scheme with effect from December 1990.

He explained that during that period, all the 200 staff had qualified for the special pension scheme and should not have been excluded from it.

Mr Nsiah said the effort of the bank to pay the redundant workers who were described as "dead wood" was an insult to those who gave of their best to serve the bank.

He said the move to pay some workers and deny others was meant to divide the front of workers to enable the management to knock their heads together.

He therefore urged the ex-workers not to succumb easily to the divide and rule tactics but to fight for what was due them.

Credit: The Graphic