Over 10,000 woodworkers in the Ashanti Region have, within the last one year, lost their jobs due to what industry players blame on power instability and high tariffs. The Timber and Woodworkers Union says the situation has been compounded by the Electricity Company of Ghana’s decision to cut power supply to timber firms despite agreed payment schedules between the two parties. General Secretary, Joshua Ansah, fears the planned load-shedding announced by the Ghana Grid Company could result in delayed salaries and further lay-offs. He told Luv News the Union has over the years been concerned about unstable power supply in the region, with no end in sight as the situation worsens. He indicated that all the timber firms in the region were recording low production in the midst of power cuts resulting in persistent damage to equipment. According to Mr. Ansah, some workers have either not received salaries at all for over four months, or the lucky ones get paid late in the subsequent month. He called on the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission to intervene to prevent further mass job cuts. “My last check indicates that most of the companies have lost their motor and the cost of the machine is not easy. If you have lumber in the dryer and power goes off, which have been happening these days, it means you are going to do double costing because the lumber will lose moisture and you have to undertake re-dry. This all add to the overhead of the companies”, he stressed. Mr. Ansah called on the ECG to respect its terms of agreement with the timber firms, adding that if care is not taken most of the companies will fold up completely. “Before the adjustment even the smaller timber firms were paying between 30,000 and 50,000 Ghana cedis a month on electricity consumption but they are paying 300 percent more. This situation has resulted dismissals everyday simply because the company cannot pay the workers. My plea is that ECG has to sit down with the companies to review the payment system because at the end of the day it is the ordinary laborer who suffers. The last time we checked the union has lost ten thousand members and this very serious”, he noted. Public Relations Manager at the Ashanti Regional Office of the ECG, Erasmus Kyere-Baidoo, told Luv News, ECG has adopted full-cost recovery measures from bulk consumers because most of them have abused the payment plan. He urged firms with genuine concerns to officially petition the ECG for consideration.