Rock City Hotel has withdrawn its bid to purchase the 60 percent shares of some four Hotels owned by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
The hotels include La Palm Beach Hotel, Labadi Beach Hotel, Royal Ridge Hotel and Elimina Beach Hotel.
This comes after organised labour declared an indefinite strike action following the National Pensions Regulatory Authority’s (NPRA) approval giving clearance to SSNIT, to proceed with its plan to offload part of its stake in the facilities.
According to the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah, the Union does not understand why the NPRA would allow SSNIT to proceed with the deal without further engagement after it initially ordered SSNIT to halt the procedure.
As such, TUC has directed its members to lay down their tools effective Monday, July 15.
Addressing the media on July 12, Dr Baah said “From Monday 15 of July 2024, all workers in Ghana must not go to work until SSNIT publicly announces the termination of the process for the sale of its shares in the hotels.”
In a statement on Friday, the hotel’s management indicated that “Flowing from all the commentary monitored and the undue negativity that has attended this commentary, we feel you have not done enough to engage all your stakeholders, leading to perceptions that we don’t want to be associated with our brand.”
“We believe that such negativity is not only injurious to our brand but also jeopardises the success of the investment we intend to make in these hotels.”
On the back of this, Rock City has informed SSNIT “of our decision to withdraw our bid and discontinue our pursuit of this investment opportunity.”
Right after organised labour made the announcement, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) initiated actions to get its members to lay down their tools starting Monday, July 15.
In a statement, the association said it will start by withdrawing Out Patient Department (OPD) services from July 15 to 17.
This will be followed by emergency services from July 18 to July 21.
From July 2022, the hospitals will see a total withdrawal of all their services.
At the press conference today, the TUC argued that the sale of SSNIT’s stake to Rock City Hotel was not in the best interest of Ghanaian workers; therefore, SSNIT must terminate the deal.
