About 3,000 workers of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) who were laid off in 2002 without their severance awards have appealed to President John Mahama to order the payment of the benefits.
According to them, all efforts to get the Authority to honour its obligation have yielded no results hence "our appeal to the President who has demonstrated in words and deeds his compassion for the afflicted, the dispossessed and the vulnerable to intervene for us."
Mr Stephen Ashitey-Adjei, Leader of the retrenched workers, told the Ghana News Agency that the late President John Evans Atta Mills had directed the Ministry of Transport in a letter with reference number OP307VOL.20/121121 to pay the workers but since his demise, nothing has been done about it.
"This is a sad and confusing affair because most of the ex workers had hope in the late President but his sudden demise killed their own appreciation of life."
According to him, about 500 of the workers have so far died while "others have become paupers and destitute. We are like a dying brigade. A brigade of dock workers who braved the sea for the economic well-being of a struggling nation".
He said five people who managed to acquire legal representation have been paid all their benefits adding that "for most of the ex workers, ,justice is very expensive and that only a leader like President Mahama who knows how pitiful and vulnerable a dispossessed person can be, can offer help."
Source: GNA
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