Golden Star employees agitated over plan to include them as ‘capital assets’ in sale of company

Golden Star employees agitated over plan to include them as 'capital assets' in sale of company

File photo Employees of Golden Star Resources (GSR), a mining company operating two gold mines in Ghana, have raised concerns over plans to include them as capital assets in a transfer of company ownership deal.

The workers also say GSR is relinquishing the cost to revamp its Bogoso Prestea mine and the environmental rehabilitation liabilities of about $53 million to a non-listed private mining company.

Golden Star Resources sold one of its subsidiaries in a deal that has been criticised by the employees as putting profits over people by trading both the employees and other assets with a buyer and with no regard for the future survival of the mine.

In a petition sighted by GhanaWeb, they have criticised the new owners, Future Global Resources (FGR), of denying them status as permanent employees of the company.

"We as workers are not part of the capital assets on the balance sheet transferred to you as a buyer in the recent acquisition of the mine. For us to be a part of your acquisition, the place would have to be Bristol or Liverpool, England and the time would have to be in the 18th century. This is sovereign Ghana in the 21st century and that shall not be the case," the employees said in the petition.

They say they have been denied their legitimate severance entitlement and the opportunity for legal engagement with the buyer, contrary to the employment contract agreement between permanent employees and GSR.

The employees are calling on Government of Ghana act swiftly in the business decision of GSR, the precedence risk the sale presents to the Ghanaian employees and the risk to the micro economy of Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality.

Following the initial sale announcement on July 27, 2020, employees highlighted, with grave concern, that the buyer does not have any credentials in the mining industry unlike the likes of Newmont, Anglogold Ashanti, Goldfield and Barrick to run a mine with the largest concession in Ghana.

According to the employees, the three critical issues that arise from the sale are: the risk of losing the mine in the hands of an inexperienced and non-listed mining company reverting $53million rehabilitation liability to government, an attempt by Golden Star Resources to violate employment agreements with employees and a precedence of selling or trading Ghanaian workforce between foreign investors.

Employees and community request to government

Employees and the entire communities of Bogoso Prestea and its catchment are calling on […]

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