The revamping of the Takoradi-Sekondi-Kojokrom rail line in the Western Region is likely to suffer a setback as workers of Amandi Holding Limited working on the Kojokrom rail line, yesterday began a sit-down strike to demand better conditions of service.
The rail line project is under the redevelopment of Takoradi-Sekondi via Kojokrom sub-urban railway line, including a station and supply of rolling stock.
According to the workers, they had decided to down their tools because they had been cheated for a long time by the Israeli expatriate managers of the company.
The aggrieved workers asserted that they worked for 30 days in a month and for that matter, should be given allowances covering the days.
They however, indicated that managers of the company intentionally give them allowances covering only 21 days, contrary to what is stipulated in the labour law.
“When you complain, the Israeli expatriates will tell the Ghanaian workers that if they are not comfortable with the mode of payment they can quit the job,” Andrew Cupson Otoo, one of the workers, pointed out.
He indicated that most of the Ghanaians go to work on Saturdays and Sundays, which should attract double allowances.
He underscored that the company’s authorities pay those workers according to the hours spent at the construction site on those days.
Mr Cupson Otoo pointed out that several efforts by the workers to let the expatriate managers do the right thing had been unsuccessful as numerous letters written by the workers to alert the local authorities concerned had not yielded any results.
The Government of Ghana is bent on revamping the country’s ailing rail transport system with practical efforts towards reconstructing the Takoradi-Sekondi via Kojokrom sub-urban line to provide passenger service to the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.
Deputy Transport Minister, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, disclosed this at a recent national executive council meeting of the Railway Workers’ Union of the Trades Union Congress at Takoradi.
She noted that due to limited resources, Government was adopting the Public-Private Partnership policy as the financing option to boost infrastructure development.
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