Casual Workers Disrupt Activities At Port

About 500 casual workers at the Tema port who received their end of service entitlements last week besieged the port yesterday to demand more money.

The action, which they started on Tuesday, is said to have disrupted activities at the port, making the government to lose millions of cedis.

The Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Agnes Sikanartey, Tema Division Police Commander, told GNA that the casual workers reported in their numbers this morning to disrupt work at the port.

"They wanted to block the main gates to prevent port workers, CEPS officials, importers and exporters as well as other stakeholders from going to the port to transact business."

ACP Sikanartey said the Police had managed to push them out of the gate to enable port workers, CEPS officials and other port users to go about their normal duties.

A source close to the port officials told the GNA that following the privatisation of a number of port activities, a large number of port workers including casual labourers have been laid off, and special packages, negotiated with their unions, were paid to them.

When the casual labourers heard that some of the workers received bigger packages than them, they went back to the port to demand more money.