Some workers of the youth in the afforestation program are threatening to withdraw their services if the government fails to pay them all outstanding arrears by the end of this month.
They describe the Forestry Commission’s efforts in ensuring that they are duly paid, as half-hearted.
Prince Kwame Annan, a supervisor who spoke to Citi News on behalf of the disgruntled workers, noted that arrears are owed them as far back as November 2018.
“From November government owes us arrears. Anytime they pay they leave some people out and they keep telling us they will pay the rest. They told us that some people have to meet 18 working-day condition; those people met the requirement but still haven’t been paid. We keep following up,they are always saying there is no money, we can’t keep working if there is no money,” he said.
In March, some workers threatened to demonstrate if managers of the program fail to pay their five-month unpaid allowance.
This follows their alleged disengagement from the scheme for registering for the Nations Builders Corps (NaBCo).
According to them, the management of youth in afforestation asked them to resign from NaBCo to earn their unpaid five months allowance.
But, upon their resignation, managers of youth in afforestation served them notice of their disengagement from the program, an action they believe is unfair to them.
In an interview with Citi News, some of the beneficiaries demanded full payment of their allowance and their re-engagement.
“The Deputy CEO told us to go for resignation letters from NaBCo and bring it to Forestry Commission for them to know that we are no longer part of the NaBCo system. We have that and the evidence is here. We have the resignation letter and we have sent it to them. Last week, the Deputy CEO told us that although we have brought the letters, we have been taken off the system. They have not treated us fairly”, another said.
Last year, some of them in the Eastern Region threatened to embark on series of demonstrations over the non-payment of allowances and poor working conditions.
Prior to that, several others in the Greater Accra and other areas had also protested the non-payment of allowances.