Tollbooth workers storm parliament over unpaid arrears

Hundreds of Tollbooth Workers have stormed Parliament over the loss of jobs and unpaid arrears. The angry-looking workers carrying placards say they are hungry.

The Workers Union made up of numerous disabled persons during the early hours of Tuesday, July 5, defiled the heavy downpour in the capital and walked into the Chamber block of Parliament to register their displeasure about their living conditions since the cancellation of toll from November 2021.

Presenting a petition to Parliament, Edward Duncan, Secretary to the Union, said the government has allegedly failed to deliver on its promises of reassigning affected members, as well as paying their salaries until they secure new jobs.

According to him, the government only paid them two months’ salary—November and December 2021—but failed to credit their accounts from January 2022 to date.

The situation, they contended, is making life unbearable for them, thus the call on government via Parliament to immediately pay their salary arrears and reassigned them.

They asserted that the best solution to addressing the problem is for government to reintroduce toll collection to enable them to go back to work and contribute their quota to national development.

“This would enable government to also improve on its revenue collection to aid development,” he added.

Madam Lydia Seyram Alhassan, Deputy Majority Whip, who jointly received the petition alongside her Minority counterpart, Ibrahim Ahmed, expressed gratitude to the group for taking the path of democracy and deciding to convey their grievances to parliament instead of other tools to register their displeasure.

She assured the group that their concerns would be presented to the Speaker for swift response.

Mr. Ahmed Ibrahim, on the other hand, noted that as a country, whenever the two parties agree on something there is a success, but when they disagree the masses suffer.