The Board Chairman of the Metro Mass Transit (MMT), Mr. Ahmed Arthur, has disclosed that his outfit has discarded the idea of planned lay-off of some 1,200 workers due to the huge cost involved in that exercise.
He added that after cost benefit analysis of the planned exercise, management has decided not to go head because it would be unwise and financial imprudent to embark on the said exercise. Mr. Ahmed Arthur revealed this when he spoke in interview with the Daily Graphic indicating…”It’s a difficult enterprise to keep the huge number of workers to operate only 430 buses.”
“It’s a delicate balance for us to keep that number of workers with few buses, and still be able to stay afloat… When we worked out the figures for laying off 1,200 workers, we realized that the figures were too huge and so we had to discard the idea of retrenchment,” he added.
Analyzing the situation, Mr. Arthur argued,”…with 3,600 workers operating 430 buses, it will mean that, on the average, each bus will be assigned, seven workers. We have to live with his number until we are able to acquire more buses so that we can have an optimum workforce.”
The MMT is said to have 750 buses, but 320 of them have broken down, leaving 430 on the road. The government in July 2017 indicated that, it would soon purchase 800 new buses for the metro Mass Transit and Inter-City State Transport Corporation (ISCT). The buses, it said, will operate on compressed natural gas, while the 600 others will operate on diesel.
In September, workers of the company left many passengers stranded when they refused to work in protest of poor working conditions, and the management’s inability to fix challenges the company has been grappling with.
The workers also highlighted the new board’s decision to purchase a new vehicle for the managing Director at a cost of GH100, 000, when about 100 buses of the company needed urgent repair.
Mr. Arthur, in an earlier interview with Citi News, however, refuted claims that the management of the MMT was working in its selfish interest, despite the company’s dwindling fortunes.
He also denied that his outfit was paying the workers although they were redundant, due to reduced operational capacity, nothing that the company had plans to purchase some more buses to boost its operations, and the workers will be needed to man the new buses. He said the company expects 200 more buses by December 2017 to bolster its fleet.
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