179 GTP workers sacked in 2016

The Ghana Textile Printing (GTP) Limited, has in 2016 laid off 178 workers due to operational challenges.

The Market Director of GTP Rev Stephen Kofi Badu in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM said they laid the workers off so the company can restructure its operations.

“Two major problems that confront us is the issue of counterfeit and the energy cost which are all affecting our bottom line operations. We needed to take certain action and part of that is to restructure. As a result, the redundancy is a consequence of the restructuring.”

The affected staff comprises 138 permanent and 40 casual workers.

In previous years GTP has laid off a number of workers for the same reason. But Rev. Badu said the numbers have increased this year.

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“The first batch was in late 2014 when about 22 of our staff were laid off; then in 2015 a few others were also laid off but the number has increased this time round because of the restructuring.”

The company was also unable to meet its target for 2016 following the impact of the high operational costs.

“We could not achieve our targets for the year; the year is about to end and so far, we are nowhere near our targets. We were expecting to sell at least eighteen million yards but as it stands now, we are nowhere near that,” Rev. Badu opined.

But GTP says it remains hopeful that the new government will introduce favourable policies to help grow the industry.

The textile industry witnessed massive job cuts in the country recently following the energy crisis.

In the 1970s, the industry had a huge workforce of 25,000, but it now employs about 1,700 following the lack of effective policies to deal with the smuggling menace.

From about 20 companies existing in the 80s, only about 8 remain.

Some of them still trying to keep pace in the market in the face of unfair competition from pirated designs include Akosombo Textile Limited (ATL), Textile Printex and the Ghana Textile Manufacturing Company (GTMC) and Ghana Textiles Limited (GTP).