The Divisional Union Chairman of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Sam Nat Kevor, has welcomed an order by the National Labour Commission (NLC) directing the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to reverse a decision to block allowances of GBC workers.

The NLC, in a hearing of a complaint tabled before it by the FWSC over threats by the staff of the GBC to embark on a strike in demand of their allowances, described the FWSC’s directive as unlawful.

The Commission has therefore given the FWSC a 14-day ultimatum to reverse its decision to strike out the allowances in question and restore all deductions made from salaries of GBC staff.

Speaking in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on Wednesday, Mr Kevor said that he would have been surprised if things had not gone the way they did.

“I don’t think this is a game of who won or lost. I think that the NLC has made a correction. I would have been surprised if things did not go the way they did,” he stated.

Admitting that the two parties had accepted the directive as no objection had been made, Mr Kevor stated that the directive was with immediate effect and that the Union had also been directed to call off the strike.

Early on, the General Secretary of the Public Service Workers Union (PSWU), Bernard Adjei, reacting to the NLC’s directive, said he believes the directive, when met, will avert any further unrest.

“What the Fair Wages has done is to unilaterally take away allowances that were duly negotiated, which are protected under the constitution and Labour Act of this country,” he said.

“So if they have issues with the allowances, it has been negotiated. It has been there, it is only for them to write to us to review these allowances. When we have an agreement, then we move from there. But the Labour Law frowns on what they have done. So we think the Commission has done well, so we believe that Fair Wages will go by the directive,” he said.