The embattled Zoomlion workers have not been paid for over six months
Workers of Sanitation giant Zoomlion Ghana limited in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) Municipality in the Central region have staged a demonstration against the company for non-payment of salaries.
They say despite their meager salaries, the last time they were paid was six months ago. This, according to them, is making livelihood difficult for them as they are unable to meet their needs including that of their families.
The workers who have boycotted work today, [Monday February 26 ] in demand of their six months’ salaries say the situation has been the same for years now with authorities doing little to ameliorate their sordid plight .
Their bosses, they say, are living well at the expense of them who go into the trenches to work in order to meet the objectives of the company.
Their protest comes in the wake of a notice by the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) to beneficiaries of its Sanitation Module to reapply as part of review measures.
According to officials of the Agency, it initiated a nationwide headcount to verify the number of beneficiaries on the module as submitted by Zoomlion Ghana Limited and out of the 45,320 names, 38,884 turned out for the exercise.
The exercise further revealed that, most of the beneficiaries were recruited without recourse to the Youth Employment Agency.
“Therefore, there was no appointment letters issued to these Beneficiaries, a practice we consider unacceptable,” said the CEO of the Agency Justin Koduah Frimpong on Wednesday February 21.
Also per the review, each beneficiary is paid GHC 100.00 whiles GHC 400.00 goes to the service provider as management fees.
However reacting to the issue, management of Zoomlion said it was only operating within the confines of the contract, adding YEA is responsible for reviewing the amount.
“The decision to pay beneficiaries Gh¢100 per month out of the Gh¢500 Management fee was not the initiative of Zoomlion Ghana limited. In fact, at the inception of the module in 2006, beneficiaries were receiving Gh¢50 per month, it was the management of Zoomlion that initiated the move for the allowance to be increased to Gh¢100. So the same Agency which set the initial amount is the only one that has the authority to change it,” Zoomlion said in a statement.
