We are suffering - Drivers of MPs cry out

Accra, July 19, GNA - Chauffeurs of parliamentarians on Tuesday protested against low salaries they received from their masters.

A statement issued to the press by the drivers on Tuesday in Parliament indicated that a driver receives between GH¢80.00 to GH¢150.00 a month, which they said made life very difficult for them.

Mr Labaran Sulayman, Public Relation Officer of the drivers, who signed the statement said: 93We don't have social security and travel allowances to support us.

"We are married people and our salaries are not enough to take care of our families - paying of school fees sometimes become huge a problem. "We drive our employers outside Accra and sometimes outside Ghana fo= r meetings but they don't give us even food to eat and place to sleep. We sometimes sleep in our cars," he said.

According to Mr Sulayman, they had complained to the clerk of Parliament but the reply from him was that their engagements were purely private with their masters.

He said they had also written several letters to the Majority and Minority Leaders in Parliament on the issue but that had also not yielded any positive result.

"We want our employers to know that we are suffering," he said. When Mr Jones Kugblenu Public Relations Officer of Parliament was contacted on the matter, he said, apart from the drivers for the leadership of Parliament, parliamentarians had their own arrangements with their personal drivers.

He said it would be better if the drivers did their own negotiation with their masters for better conditions. He, however, said he was aware that some of the MPs pay their drivers well and called other MPs to emulate such example.