Workers of the Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL) have petitioned the Trade and Industry Minister Alan Kyerematen over high mortality rate among staff of the ailing textile company.
The workers who have not been paid for the past three months say many of them are dying due to increasing economic hardship.
They thus want government to fulfil its promise to solve the problem of irregular salary payment.
In the petition cited by Starr News, the anxious ATL workers asked government to keep to the timelines to stop the job losses and improve the conditions of service in the textile companies.
This comes barely two months after The Textile, Garment and Leather Employees Union (TGLEU) described the recent measures announced by the Trade and Industry Ministry to deal with the influx of pirated textiles as recycled promises government has consistently reneged on.
The government, according to Mr Kyerematen would soon release a long-promised stimulus package to companies in the textile industry and dispatch anti-piracy task force into markets to scout and confiscate pirated textiles.
The Trade Ministry, he further noted would liaise with Finance Ministry to roll out tax stamp on authorized prints and also restrict imports, setting September 1, 2018 for government to implement the measures.
But the General Secretary of the TGLEU Abraham Koomson said though the measures are good, they are skeptical about government’s commitment to fulfil the promises.
“These are recycled promises. They have promised these over and over again. But they have not fulfilled them. So we are not overly excited about the said promises. If the workers don’t sustain the pressure they will wait till 2020 when elections will be held then they will do something,” he stated.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
