Chamber of Mines confirms job cuts in mining sector

    The Ghana Chamber of Mines has confirmed to that some of its members will carry out some restructuring that is likely to result in lay-offs.
    The decision has been influenced by decline in prices of gold on the international market.
    It reported that some mining firms are looking at the option of cutting down their workforce because of falling gold prices.

Chief Executive of the Chamber, Sulemanu Koney, said possible lay-offs would be carried out with a human face.

“Unfortunately even as you try to be efficient, you try to be innovative in your operations, it comes to a point where you have to look at the numbers you are bearing in terms of employment,” he said.

Meanwhile the Ghana Mine Workers Union says it does not believe layoffs are the only way out of the current challenges facing the industry.

General Secretary of the Union, Prince William Ankrah, said the industry stands to lose more if skilled workers are sent home.

“The reality is that you need skills to get your enterprise running and for that matter layoffs may not be the appropriate long term solution,” he said.

According to him, layoffs are short term approach to a problem that needs planning in the long term.

“It is important that we maintain cool heads and look at issues more maturely and see how we can [solve the problem]. Any short term approach will bite us in the long term,” Prince William Ankrah said.

Source: myjoyonline.com