The HFC bank staff union was on Friday inaugurated as a member of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) at a ceremony in the national capital.

General Secretary of the ICU, Solomon Kotei, inaugurating the union urged employers to recognize the rights of workers and respect them accordingly.

“As a national union, we are mandated by national constitution; our constitution to ensure that much as we give recognition to employers’ rights, workers rights must also be recognized. In real sense, all businesses over the world, the business cannot work on its own except the people who have been employed.”

The era where unilateral decisions were taken by employers, Mr. Kotei observed was over and called for collaboration and partnership between employers and employees to achieve the goals of their organizations.

He said, “If in the time past, we have sat and known what was happening and yet we were marginalized, that marginalization time is over. We are condemned by destiny not to have anything of ours than to collaborate with management and to partnership with them and in doing so, the union is not a vampire; the union is not only all the time come to make demand. Ours is to show and prove to you that yes, we might not be part of your management but we have what it takes to actually turn business around.”

He urged the workers to understand the dreams and visions of their organisations to achieve the desired goals for their mutual benefit.

The ICU General Secretary advised the HFC bank local executives to be truthful and transparent at all times to their members and desist from making promises they cannot fulfill.

Head of Human Resources of the HFC Bank, on behalf of leadership of the bank, said the management was committed to working closely with the union to achieve the desired results.

The members who were elected for four years to represent the Local Union Executive team of the HFC Bank include Emmanuel Mensah as Chairman, Akwasi Peprah-Odoom Vice Chairman, Emilia Adomako Ansah as Secretary and Dominic Fiifi Amoah as Assistant Secretary.

The rest are John Aboagye Duodu and Kwaku Duah as 1st and 2nd Trustees respectively, David Aguda as Executive Member, Mercy Araba Kertson as Women’s Representative and Kimberly Mutia Abdallah as the Youth Representative.

It would be recalled that August 2nd, 2017 ICU Ghana became the recognized collective bargaining unit for some staff of the HFC Bank.

The HFC Bank, with the inauguration of the local union, therefore joins others like the National Investment Bank (NIB), GCB Bank, Stanchart and ADB Bank who have been unionized.

Some banks in the country yet to be unionized include Ecobank, Access Bank, Prudential Bank, Zenith Bank, Unibank and several others.