Pay us our salary arrears – Staff of collapsed FMCs tell government

The coalition of former staff of Fund Management Companies whose licences were revoked is demanding their salary arrears from the Government of Ghana.

In a statement signed by Theo Paintsil, the spokesperson of the group, the staff are also demanding immediate inclusion in the government bailout package to have their severance packages paid to alleviate their “long-suffering.”

This request comes after the government released GH¢3.56 billion to settle the remaining depositor claims of 347 defunct Microfinance Companies, and 23 Savings and Loans companies and Finance Houses.

The former staff in their statement recounted how the financial sector clean-up and its attendant challenges have made life extremely difficult for them.

“Life has become so much unbearable in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic and its multiplying suffering effects on us the ex-staff. Some of us have been ejected from our apartments due to unpaid rents. We cannot feed our families any longer. We have been depending on family and friends, but we are at the end of the road. The suffering is too much,” they lamented in the statement.

They continued: “The ex-staff is therefore appealing to the government to include us in the bailout and pay our salary arrears and severance package immediately to alleviate the long-suffering.”

Eric Nana Nipah, the government’s Receiver, who doubles as a Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers (Ghana) Limited (PwC) in July 2020 stated that his outfit would pay the outstanding salaries as well as negotiate exit packages of former employees of the defunct firms.

“To ameliorate the economic impact of the resolution exercise on former employees of these affected companies particularly in these times of Covid, the Bank of Ghana has agreed to pre-finance the full settlement of employee-related claims which otherwise rank as unsecured claims in the receivership of these companies. The Receiver will in the week commencing Monday, July 13, 2020 engage with the authorized representatives of the ex-staff to agree on modalities for the payment of outstanding salaries and exit packages to ex-staff of these resolved institutions,” he noted.

He then added that he would only fully settle outstanding salaries and exit packages of former employees which have been duly validated in the resolution process.