Some staff of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) throughout the country are gearing up to embark on a nationwide demonstration to press home their demands for unpaid salaries.
The staff, most of who were employed between the year 2012 and 2013, say the decision was taken after several promises by the government to pay the salary arrears had failed to yield fruits.
They have therefore, petitioned the office of the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, as a last resort to getting the matter resolved before they lay down their tools and hit the streets with their intended demonstration.
Copies of the petition have also been sent to the offices of the Ministers of Finance and Economic Planning, Interior, Employment and Labour Relations, National Coordinator for NADMO and the Labour Commission for consideration.
“Some of us have worked with the organisation for almost three years now and a chunk of salary arrears is still with the state. Our situation, both desperate and horrible, is worsened by the non-evidence of hope of getting our salary arrears,” the petition, jointly signed by Abdul Hamid, Baba Ishaku, Eric Adjei and Paul N. said.
They recalled that sometime in June 2015, the office of the Chief of Staff caused the ministry of finance to issue financial clearance to the affected staff to be paid their salary arrears which have been outstanding since 2013.
At that time the disgruntled staff indicated, “We were made to understand from the financial clearance that our salary arrears will be paid in the first quarter of 2016.
“Sir, we are in June now and nobody is telling us anything with regards to the arrears. All our efforts in trying to know the whereabouts of our arrears have fallen on deaf ears as nobody from our headquarters or the finance ministry is prepared to listen to us.”
According to them, “We are not demanding for any money to be given to us freely, instead, we are asking for the arrears we have duly worked for.”
Their major headache was the fact that “majority of our people are owing banks and other financial institutions huge sums of money which we believe if the arrears are paid, it will go a long way to alleviate the suffering and trauma we are going through.”
That aside, they indicated, “Majority of us have families and many of us were posted to stations that are not our native homes. “We buy food, pay rent and utility bills and still must take on our family responsibilities.”
Having managed what they described as ‘this extremely dire situation’ for two to three years, they claimed, “We are exhausted and desperately require immediate intervention from your office.”
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