Monrovia – A group aggrieved Coalition for Democratic Change partisans working at the Liberia Telecommunication Corporation (LIBTELCO) have staged a peaceful protest for what they termed as bad labor practices from management.
On Monday, July 20, the protesters, who identified themselves as partisans of the CDC and were appointed by the ruling party, held placards as they protested and chanted.
The workers told FrontPageAfrica that the management of LIBTELCO owes them for two months’ salary. Also, US$40 was deducted from their salaries.
But Anderson Chea, Deputy Managing Director for Operations of LIBTELCO, said the company does not owe the staff salaries as they claimed although a portion of their June salary was erroneous deducted, adding that arrangement is being made to reimburse the deducted amount during the July salary payments.
But the aggrieved workers, most of whom are technicians, promised to continue their protest at the main entrance of the company on Lynch Street in central Monrovia.
“The management deducted U$40 from US$400 people salary. We are not stupid; we are educated people. The issue of harmonization does not affect autonomous agency like LIBTELCO. We raise our own money, this is a multimillion-dollar company but because of bad management we are going through this situation,” said Johnson Massaquoi, one of the aggrieved workers.
Another aggrieved worker, Boakai M. Kromah, a technician, told FrontPageAfrica that he was sent by President George Weah to work at LIBTELCO.
Kromah, who claims to be a resident of Gibraltar community in Clara Town, says he is a childhood friend of President Weah but his salary does not commensurate with the work he does.
“The managing Director of LIBTELCO knew very well that my recommendation came from the Executive Mansion and he sat down there, and the Human Resource man prepared my employment letter and reduce my salary to US$200,” Kromah said.
“I am a family man with six children and four grandchildren. What can US$200 do? And he (Managing Director) knew very well that my recommendation came from the President? I am making two hundred United States dollars and when they cut taxes it come down to US$190 then they subtract US$40 from there, how my family will survive.”
Kromah has called on President Weah to remove the entire LIBTELCO’s Management team, adding that they are not in the interest of the workers.
“Mr. President, I am appealing to you, your childhood friend from Gibraltar, please come to our aid at LIBTELCO. You worked with LIBTELCO in the 80s; you were an engineer in the PABS system, so please come to our rescue. We are dying slowing at LIBTELCO. The management is suppressing the employees,” he said.
But responding to the allegation of the aggrieved “handful of workers” who protested on Monday, Mr. Chea said although the company has been struggling, it has strived to pay its staff.
“The issue about the US$40 deduction, that was an honest error on the part of administration – what happened over the period of time is that they were given shift allowance that was not included in the salary and it was not taxed and the PMF law intends of income – we don’t want to full short of that when we are audited and asked why we are paying people additional money after paying salaries?”
Chea said the management agreed that the US$40 will be added to the employee’s salary which will be paid to them during the July salary payment.
“The management sent an email to the staff, apologizing for the oversight and that amount will be included in the payroll double for this month,” he said.
“For somebody to say they cut their salary, it just tell you that the person is actually not following any event or they have decided to make confusion for themselves because we have almost 300 employees and they are not complaining – but only four persons are complaining.”