About 200 workers of Akosombo Textile Limited (ATL) have been sacked while the remaining staff have not been paid for the past four months, spokesperson for the Coalition of Textile Workers in Ghana, John Kofi Abeka, has revealed.
According to him, all efforts to get the salary arrears paid have been futile.
They are, therefore, appealing to the government, through the media, to intervene.
Mr Abeka told sit-in host, Katakyie Obeng Mensah, on Accra 100.5FM’s Ghana Yensom on Wednesday, 19 September, that: “200 workers at Akosombo Textiles have been laid off because piracy is killing the sale of the textiles industry; the rest of the workers have also not been paid for the past four months”.
Mr Abeka added that after a series of complaints against piracy, the government drew a roadmap that was expected to be implemented in September 2018.
However, as the timeline was approaching, he said, the government invited the textile workers to meeting and revealed that the implementation of the roadmap had been forwarded to 15th October 2018.
This postponement, he said, showed a lack of unwillingness on the part of the government to deal with the piracy menace that, according to him, is killing the local textile companies.
“We are in Ghana but we are working for the economies of China and other countries due to piracy, this is a huge problem that the government must deal with,” he said.
He added: “We do not plan to hit the streets to protest, all we want is the implementation of the roadmap given by the government to deal with piracy.
“The initial date they gave for the commencement was September 2018 but they have told us that it has been shifted to 15th October.
“We don’t understand why this action cannot be taken immediately because the piracy is killing our businesses.”
ClassFM
