Three thousand workers in different media organizations in the country have over the past few weeks been laid off and additional 5,000 workers in different sectors of the economy are also on their way home due to serious liquidity challenges facing most of these businesses.
The mass layoffs come barely a month after the collapse of seven (7) indigenous banks in the country triggered over two thousand (2,000) job cuts and losses.
Already, it is estimated that millions of Ghanaians are without jobs, the majority being the youth and the present layoffs is said to compound an already bad situation.
The new Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) is due to lay off 700 workers of the collapsed Beige Bank today. Letters communicating their dismissals have been dispatched to the workers.
Vodafone Ghana has also officially hinted o the dismissal of several thousands of its staff with the Oil Marketing Companies (OMGs) warning that 4,000 employees of the association are to be retrenched or laid off due to the prevailing economic climate in the country.
GN Media and TV Africa have also sacked over 500 of their employees citing restructuring exercise as basis for their actions.
EIB Network has also sacked 120 of its staff with many more on their way home. Plans to look into and publish its findings on the recent mass staff layoffs on the media front.
President of GIBA, Mr. Andre Danso-Ahinkora, said the Association was beginning talks with labour unions to get to the bottom of the lay-offs in the media.
“We will need to meet and find out and understand what is going on and put out a document,” he said.
Meanwhile, an Economist, Professor Peter Quartey, has said the media houses that are currently challenged were not set up as viable businesses.
According to him, there is a link between the media staff layoffs and the banking sector crisis.
“If the media outlets are not financially sustainable, they draw on these financial institutions in order to remain vibrant …and certainly once their source of funding dries up, they go down. But if they get a capital from their financier and you are independent and viable, I don’t see why if your financier goes down you should also go down; unless there are no good corporate governance structures in those media houses,” he said.
Source: The Insight
