Past GPHA workers demand severance package
A number of former workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) picketed on the premises of the authority to demand the payment of their severance package due them after they had opted for a voluntary redundancy exercise in 2002.
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The former workers, numbering about 80, accused management of the GPHA of short-changing them in the redundancy project which was funded by the World Bank as part of the restructuring of the authority.
According to the former workers, a similar exercise carried out in Nigeria saw workers in that country receiving money ranging from $1,500 to $3,000.
They said considering the work they did at the port, they ought to have received similar amount as against payments ranging from GH¢30 to GH¢3,000 which were paid to them.
“The money we are demanding is that which was made available by the World Bank so we do not see the reason why the GPHA would want to deny us what is duly ours,” the leader of the group of ex-workers, Mr Laud Nsiah Laryea, said.
Wielding placards with inscriptions, “We need our money now’’, ‘’Our demonstration is an act against immoral act that has killed over 600 of our compatriots’’, ‘’the 14 years of wait is over’’, ‘’we want our benefits paid’’ among others, they chanted and hurled invectives at the Director General of the GPHA, Mr Richard Anamoo, whom they said had frustrated every move of the former workers to receive their money.
“We wish to, as a matter of urgency, appeal to the GPHA to rescind its decision and ensure members of the group are adequately compensated,” Mr Laryea said.
He said the former workers had resorted to the action by demonstrating on the GPHA's premises after they had exhausted all processes, including legal actions to address the issue.
