Pay us or we will hit the streets – Youth in Afforestation workers to government
The patience of workers in the Youth in Afforestation program may just have run out as the disgruntled staff have issued an ultimatum to the government to settle their salary arrears else they will hit the street.
Initially, the Chief Executive Officer of the program Mr John Allotey revealed that the government had released funds to cover the three months salary arrears scheduled for disbursement to the staff by next week.
Bu the disgruntled workers said such promises did not yield any results and are yet to also receive official communication from the Finance Ministry regarding the payments
The spokesperson for the Youth In Afforestation Program, Bossman Adutwum said “government owes us 6 months allowances. We were informed by our CEO that the government has given us green light to pay for three months. Some documents need to be signed before the payment will be made.”
“Despite this assurance, we are not at rest because we have been disappointed before. I, together with three others, have decided to go to the office to ascertain if indeed we will be given the allowances. If we do not get any such assurance, we will embark on a peaceful demonstration on Thursday.”
Some months back specifically in March workers threatened to demonstrate if managers of the program failed to pay their five-month unpaid allowance.
This was backed by their alleged disengagement from the scheme and enrolling for the Nations Builders Corps (NABCo) rather.
They explained that the management of Youth in Afforestation upon noticing the trend asked them to resign from NABCo to earn their unpaid five-month allowance.
But as they heeded their advice and resigned from the NABCo program, managers of youth in afforestation in turn rather served them notice of their disengagement from the program, an action they believed was unfair to them. Some of the beneficiaries demand full payment of their allowance and their re-engagement.
“The Deputy CEO told us to go for resignation letters from NABCo and bring it to Forestry Commission for them to know that we are no longer part of the NABCo system. We have that and the evidence is here. We have the resignation letter, and we have sent it to them. Last week, the Deputy CEO told us that although we have brought the letters, we have been taken off the system. They have not treated us fairly”, another said.
Last year, for instance, some of their colleagues in the Eastern Region threatened to protest over the non-payment of allowances and poor working conditions.
Their counterparts in Greater Accra and other areas had also protested the non-payment of allowances.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
