Mr. George Mensah-Okley, MD, BOST
The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited, BOST signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement with its Senior Staff Association with a promise to complete and sign same for Junior Staff within a week. This follows close to twelve (12) years of inconclusive discussions on the matter which from the records has inflamed passions at some points in time and decided the fates of some past Managing Directors of the company.
In his opening address for the signing ceremony at the Boardroom of the company, the Managing Director, Mr. George Mensah-Okley maintained that nothing happens in a company except when same is done through the people and by the people. This he said is the reason 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, Mr. 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. He said, it is only when the workers commit to their tasks that the goals of the company can be achieved in full.
The Board Chairman also applauded the efforts of the new BOST Management under the leadership of Mr. Okley. In just a year of this leadership, some good progress was being made to reposition BOST where it belonged. In itemizing some of the achievements, he said he was so far satisfied with the progress of work on the effort at retrieving BOST pipelines which had been left in the United States for close to twelve (12) years after procurement. He was hopeful the pipelines would be shipped to Ghana by September 2019 and the work on the new Tema-Akosombo pipeline would 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.
In expressing their gratitude to the Management and Board of the company, the Chairman of the Senior Staff Association, Mr. Abdul Jallil praised the Managing Director for his exemplary leadership which has resulted in the accomplishment of a task which has been outstanding for close to twelve 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.
The General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union, Mr. 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 was however quick to add that the CBA 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 Group Pose after the Signing Ceremony
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