Our members are losing their wives due to their condition – Road Toll Workers Union
Getting to almost a year since members of the Ghana Road Toll Workers Union received the gruelling news that their services were no longer needed following the cessation of the collection of road tolls as announced by Roads and Highways Minister Kwasi Amoako-Attah, the toll workers are yet to be re-engaged as promised.
Expressing their frustration at their current plight, Mr Henry Dogbe, Chairman of the Road Toll Workers Union and Mr Edward Duncan, secretary of the union during a discussion on the Active Morning Show on Tuesday, September 27th said all 744 members of the union of which 221 are disabled are going through tough times following the loss of their jobs which took them by surprise.
Recounting how the situation happened, the Chairman of the union said “though we were hearing about some pockets of information that toll could be cancelled we expected at least some deliberations from parliament before any cessation only to be hit by a letter making events unfolding leading the current situation dire as about 800 jobs and indirect jobs were affected by this announcement with their dependents suffering”.
He then revealed that they “were not engaged before it was cancelled. We thought at least we would be reassigned and also news that there was a fight at the tollbooth after the cancellation was all lies and now we have nowhere to turn to since we lost our jobs”.
The executives also complained that for months now they have tried to engage stakeholders involved in the situation but unfortunately that has not yielded the desired results, adding that “they told us we will be re-assigned so they will still pay us and not lay us off, but that has not gone as expected”.
They also revealed how some moves to engage them in axle road did not go through as all their members will not benefit from that. Also, Members of Parliament who are aware of their plight have always told them to be patient as they will be assigned, but nothing has come of it yet.
According to Mr Duncan and Henry Dobe, they tried to engage the Road and Highways Ministry, but the ministry’s posture had changed regarding the situation, which made it challenging to engage yet they do not want the ex-toll workers to go to the media to complain.
They also added that a second attempt to engage some of their members on the Tema Motorway where due to the Public Private Partnership contract on the road they will take the toll to pay up for its construction but the executives insist that will not benefit their members. They said their members constantly call to complain about their worsening and some have been evicted from their houses and cannot eat three square meals a day to the extent that some are experiencing marital issues as a ripple effect of losing their jobs.
However, they said they would continue to knock on the doors of the corridors of power till they were heard despite the unfavourable response.
