The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST), has signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement with its Senior Staff Association on issues concerning entitlements and disciplinary measures.

This follows close to 12 years of inconclusive discussions on the matter which has inflamed passions and decided the fates of some past Managing Directors of the company.

Addressing the staff during a signing ceremony, the Managing Director, George Mensah-Okley, explained why coming out with a document to outline the entitlements and disciplinary procedures for the regulation of employee relations, is key to the success of every company.

He expressed satisfaction at the process of streamlining labour relations so far and was confident that BOST was on its way towards becoming a world-class company.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ekow Hackman on his part thanked the Human Resource Committee of the Board, the General Managers and Union Representatives for the speedy execution of the assigned task of developing a standard Conditions of Service Agreement for BOST and seeing to the signing of same.

He urged the Union representatives at the ceremony to continue engaging their members to give off their best in seeing the BOST dream to fruition because commitment from the workers is the surest way the Company can achieve its goals.

The Board Chairman also applauded the efforts of the new BOST Management under the leadership of Mr. Okley.

He indicated that in just a year of this leadership, BOST has made some good progress and reclaimed its position in the industry.

Ekow Hackman is Chairman of the BOST Board

Mr Hackman expressed satisfaction with the progress of work at retrieving BOST pipelines which had been left in the United States for close to 12 years after procurement.

He was hopeful they would be shipped to Ghana by September 2019 for works on the new Tema-Akosombo pipeline to be completed to augment the revenue streams of BOST.

He further disclosed that adverts for expression of interest have so far been published by BOST on the Gas Terminals and the Akosmbo-Kumasi Pipeline Projects.

“The dream is on course and BOST is stepping up its game to deepen revenue generation from the transportation of petroleum products as opposed to the current state where a chunk of its revenues accrue from storage activities,” he said.

In expressing their gratitude to the Management and Board of the company, the Chairman of the Senior Staff Association, Abdul Jallil praised the MD for his exemplary leadership which has resulted in the accomplishment of a task which has been outstanding for close to 12 years.

He also advised the Board of Directors to ignore faceless petitioners who hide behind emerging communication technologies to harm the reputation of the company and further assured Management of the support of the Union in working towards the achievement of the BOST dream.

Some senior staff in a group photograph after the signing ceremony

The General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union, Solomon Kotei praised the Board and Management of BOST for the giant step towards securing the present conditions and future of the employees.

“This is the way to go and we believe that this document will serve as a reference point to motivate staff for higher performance and to see the company to the achievement of its targets,” he stated.

He was however quick to add that the Collective Bargaining Agreement should not become a referral point for litigation between Management and Unions but a document owned between the two from which good tidings flows in both directions.  

He urged Management to be proactive and review the document as conditions in the general economy change to ensure that the staff of BOST are not worse off.

The Ceremony was witnessed by all General Managers of BOST, the Senior Staff Executives, a representation from the Board of Directors and a delegation from the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union.

A similar agreement is to be signed for Junior Staff within a week.