Unpaid compensation: Former GPHA workers threaten to picket at Tema Port

Some former casual workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) have threatened to picket at the Tema Port to back their demand for the payment of compensation to them.Mr. Moses Kwanayah, the spokesperson for the former workers, speaking at a press conference at Ashaiman, said that as far back as 2002, the GPHA embarked on a World Bank project dubbed 'The Gateway Project' to refit the port with state-of-the art machinery and to downsize the workforce of the company.Mr. Kwanayah stated that, in respect of that, about 4,195 non-permanent staff opted for the company's 'voluntary retirement exercise.''But we later got to know that management had shortchanged us. In view of this misfortune, we petitioned the then sitting President John Agyekum Kufuor through his Chief of Staff, Mr. Kojo Mpianim, for redress, but that also did not yield any result,' he stated.He added that they also petitioned several other authorities for their intervention, including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to w hom they noted responded, and urged the management of the GPHA to compensate them on humanitarian grounds.'Even though the President urged for compensation to be given to us, till date, we have not received any such compensation from management despite our relentless and several demands and calls on management, which they have bluntly refused to do,' he said.They said in their quest for justice, they had persisted and even went to court, adding, however, that the GPHA only appropriated some compensation to five members of the group while the rest of them were left unattended to despite their continuous demand on the authority.They said the situation was a pity as most of their colleagues were now sick and could not even buy their medications, adding that most of them were greatly affected by the issue and could not even provide for their families.The former workers stressed, 'We are here, just to demand and get our benefits properly paid to us. We demand action right now on this issue, which has raged on for several years now without any redress, or we won't move an inch from here, and we don't care what happened; we shall make our voices heard until we are treated rightly.'Source: Ghana News Agency