George Borsah, 42, rendered invalid following an accident at his workplace, has appealed for the government's intervention to get 'Prashanti', an Indian owned sawmill operating at Akyawkrom near Ejisu to pay him appropriate compensation and be properly resettled.
He claimed that he had been given "a raw deal" by his employers and accused them of insensitivity and callousness. The Ghana News Agency in Kumasi reports Borsah, whom it describes as lean and pale looking, as saying that whilst working at the mill on December 4, 2000, a log lifted by crane hit him in the mid-section sending him crushing to the ground.
"For four days, I was in a state of unconsciousness and battled for life at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital". He said he underwent surgical operation and was kept on admission for more than two weeks, alleging that part of his medical bills was left unpaid by the company and that his poor peasant mother-in-law at Akyawkrom, Madam Afua Kyem, had to raise 250,000 cedis loan to settle the outstanding bill.
He said the team of surgeons who worked around the clock to save his life warned that he should never engage in any physically challenging activity in view of his fragile health situation.
Accordingly, when discharged from the hospital, his job schedule at the mill was changed and was made to run errands for his bosses. Borsah said he was shocked when for no assigned reasons he was told in early October last year by the security men at the gate to the mill that they had firm instructions not to allow him to enter the company's premises.
"The company followed this up by stopping the payment of my monthly salary", he said, adding: "if Prashanti on the basis of my poor physical health wants to dump me, justice and fairness demand that I am adequately compensated for the life injury I now have to live with for the rest of my life".
Borsah said he had virtually become a destitute and left with no means to fend for himself, wife and their four children. Mr. Adotey Brown, manager of Prashanti, when contacted, confirmed that Borsah indeed suffered the said accident at the workplace and had not been paid the workman's compensation.
He was however, quick to deny that Borsah had been sacked by the company. Asked about the last time they paid his salary, Mr Brown replied that was in September last year, adding that, "in any case Borsah is not a Ghanaian, he is a Togolese".
