Aviation Safety Engineers Threaten Strike

as GCAA Labour Crisis Deepens

A long-simmering labour dispute at the heart of Ghana’s aviation infrastructure is nearing boiling point, as the Ghana Air Traffic Safety Electronics Association (GhATSEA) has issued a formal strike notice, accusing the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of duplicity, neglect, and institutional bad faith.
The engineers responsible for maintaining the electronic backbone of Ghana’s air traffic safety systems say they’ve been strung along for nearly a decade with broken promises, contradictory legal postures, and what they describe as a deliberate strategy of delay and denial by GCAA management.
At the centre of the latest flare-up is a legal sleight of hand. In 2016, GCAA’s Director of Human Resources, Ebenezer Sagoe, told the National Labour Commission (NLC) that GhATSEA members were “non-essential,” a classification that weakened their bargaining leverage. Now, in a twist of bureaucratic gymnastics, the same management is arguing before the NLC that the engineers are “essential,” in a bid to block their impending strike.
GhATSEA calls the reversal a “convenient contradiction,” accusing GCAA of weaponizing legal definitions to suit its shifting agenda. “This is not just about salaries,” one union insider told _Africa Confidential. “It’s about institutional credibility and the safety of Ghana’s skies.”
The association says it has suspended two previous strikes one in September and another in October 2025 based on assurances from the GCAA Board that management would engage meaningfully and implement agreed reforms. Instead, GhATSEA claims, management ghosted the process, offering no concrete proposals and ignoring directives from its own Board.
The engineers allege that the pattern is now familiar: delay a strike with promises, then renege once the threat subsides. “It’s a cycle of deception,” said GhATSEA President David Annan Mensah in a January 5 statement. “We are being forced to act.”
The grievances are not new. Since 2012, GhATSEA has flagged systemic anomalies in job placement and salary structures. Engineers with HNDs were slotted into junior staff grades, contrary to public sector norms. BSc holders recruited in 2022 were placed on the lowest rungs of the senior staff ladder. Salary distortions abound some junior staff earn more than their seniors, while pay gaps between grades defy logic.
Multiple interventions by past Directors-General temporarily corrected the issues, but under Sagoe’s tenure, GhATSEA says the problems have resurfaced with impunity. The association is now demanding the full implementation of the Dr. Imoro Report on salary disparities and immediate action on a July 2025 promotions petition.
GhATSEA has given the GCAA until January 15 to resolve the impasse or face a nationwide strike. The implications are not trivial: the engineers maintain and calibrate the systems that keep Ghana’s airspace operational. A walkout could paralyse radar, navigation, and communication infrastructure crippling both domestic and international flights.
The association has also called for Sagoe’s removal, accusing him of a “pattern of inaction unless compelled by higher authority.” The GCAA Board, they say, must now choose between institutional paralysis and decisive intervention.
As Ghana positions itself as a regional aviation hub, the prospect of a safety-related strike is a reputational risk the government can ill afford. But with trust eroded and deadlines looming, the skies over Kotoka may soon reflect the turbulence within.