"9 out of 10 mad people were dismissed from GPHA"

sQuashie

July 11, 2016 2:28 PM

Workers of the GPHA in September 2002 were laid off after a re-organization of the company that led to their redundancy without receiving any payment in lieu of notice.

According to him majority of the 5,600 workers who were laid off in 2002 have been facing a lot of difficulties leading to the death of some and others going mental.

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“I can say that this issue has affected our people so much that over 600 of us are dead through Tema and Takoradi and it’s so serious that if you go to Ashaiman and do serious study on this case you will see that nine out of 10 mentally deranged people are former workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority,” he stated.

In his statement he claimed that most of the affected have been involved in menial jobs to make ends meet because most of them have still not received their severance pay even after 14 years.

“We have been at home for fourteen years now struggling and doing all kinds of things to get things done right because after the payments of our benefits in the exercise, we detected that we had been short changed,” he continued.

“So many of them (the affected former workers) have broken down and they are seriously not themselves right now and it’s not only in Tema but if you go to Takoradi you will find the same thing over there.”

Workers of the GPHA in September 2002 were laid off after a re-organization of the company that led to their redundancy without receiving any payment in lieu of notice, apart from some meagre amounts described by the authority as golden handshake.

A Court of Appeal in 2007 ruled that Authority (GPHA) should pay billions of cedis in compensation for the wrongful dismissal of 4,194 casual workers. Despite the court’s judgments in their favor, authorities have failed to pay them their outstanding benefits.

sQuashie