The Railway Workers Union has commenced an industrial action over a 7-month unpaid arrears of 900 staff members if the Ghana Railway Company Limited fails to pay.

0

This comes after the group issued a statement on Monday May 12, giving authorities until close of Tuesday on May 13 to pay them or explain the reason for the delay in payment of their salaries.

1

During a media engagement, the Branch Secretary of the Accra division, Franklin Cobbinah, explained that the move has been necessitated as all efforts to engage government have proven futile citing that “...we learnt our management together with the union have been there but what comes out at the meeting we are told anything”.

2

Responding to concerns of issuing a short notice of their action to the government, Mr Cobbinah insisted that; “For us, it's not short because we have waited for quite a long ; 7 months so when should we tell them to bring us our salary again? The time is now. That is why we gave them by the close of yesterday.”

3

4

“We started demanding this salary somewhere last year and we were told we are to wait till we get a sector minister so we continue from there. We are told there was no sector minister to talk about the Railway Ministry. We learnt our management together with the union and have been there but what comes out at the meeting we are told anything,” he added.

5

The Ministry of Railway Development, according to the Branch Secretary of the Accra division, visited for a headcount promising to settle their salaries right after May Day however no news of their settlement for the past twelve days.

6

“...the Ministry came to take particulars of ours and we were told just after May day we would receive our salaries and today is 13th (sic) we haven't heard anything, nobody is telling us what is going on. So the only decision we the workers can take is to sit down and wait for the management to come and tell us why we haven't been paid,” he added.

7

In response to the union’s strike, Ghana Railway Development Authority (GRDA) has issued a statement distancing itself from the industrial action by workers of the Ghana Railway Company Limited (GRCL). They said they have no connection to it and does not affect its operations.

8

“We wish to assure the public that the GRDA remains fully operational and has not initiated or endorsed any form of public demonstration on any issue,” the statement said.

9