Workers hold CEO, Management hostage over unpaid salaries

About 500 workers of the Ayum Timber Company in the Asunafo North of Brong Ahafo are holding their management and the Chief Executive of the firm hostage over a six-month unpaid salaries.

The workers have since 5:00pm Tuesday surrounded the club house of the company at Mim, and have vowed not to allow the CEO, Naja David and any of the management members [about 16 of them] out of the compound where they were having a meeting, TV3's Laary Paa Kwesi Moses reports.

Personnel from the Goaso Divisional Police Command are currently at the scene to ensure safety and protect property of the company while they await a reinforcement from the regional capital, Sunyani.

The workers are claiming the management of the company has failed to pay their salaries for the past six months, noting all attempts at getting their outstanding salaries paid have not yielded positive results hence their latest action.

Paa Kwesi Moses reports that the workers were last week offered GHC100 each with an assurance from the management that they were arranging for a bank to come to the company to pay them three out of the six months arrears.

However, the workers say that promise is yet to materialized

About 2,500 workers of the timber firm, which is rated one of the biggest in the industry in Ghana, are affected by the unpaid salaries. Notwithstanding the non-payment, the workers have been working to ensure the smooth running of the company.

They are alleging that although their pay advice slips show a deduction of SSNIT, the company has for the past seven years not been paying the contribution to the fund managers.

According to them, the company's health facility which they hitherto turned to for healthcare services is now virtually non functional due to unavailability of drugs, thus forcing workers to seek such services from other facilities at their own cost.