Several Oil Marketing Companies (OMC’s) in Accra have failed to provide protective equipment for pump attendants in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The OMC’s are part of essential services providers being allowed to work despite the lockdown in Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi.
But an assessment done by the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC) has revealed that some of the OMC’s are endangering the lives of their staff who are working without necessary equipment.
COPEC by this has asked these OMC’s to either protect their front-line staff or close down.
Checks revealed that filling station attendants at Airport Shell, 37 Total and Spintex Petrosol do not have protective equipment to prevent the spread of the virus.
Executive Director of COPEC Duncan Amoah speaking to the media following the assessment indicated that some OMC’s have refused to provide these protective gears because it scares the customers away.
He added that as a lot of the companies are being responsible, education, basic PPE’s are provided, some other companies are equally operating very dangerously. For others, he revealed they are also saying they won’t provide it at all.
He revealed “in fact, one of the shocking stuff we are hearing from a multinational is that even if they provide the nose mask, it scares the customers away so the pump attendant should just work. And it is quite disappointing to say the least. At this point when even people within higher power are taking steps to protect themselves with PPE’s, you throw out pump attendants and say that they should not even take steps to protect themselves because the nose mask will scare customers.
“So you are more interested in the money than the well-being of these pump attendants, the frontline men. And we are going to take a serious issue with these companies that we are talking about here.”
He also cautioned OMC’s “we are going to name and shame. If you do not have any policy to protect the pump attendants or the front line staff, please close down because it is not for nothing that the president of the republic is asking Ghanaians to stay home. The more we move around, the more the virus also gets the chance to move around.”
“The more you throw these men out there in the frontline without any protection, the more you expose them and every other person to the virus. And so if these companies are not willing to invest in the minimum PPE’s, they should let these pump attendants go home and have some minimum rest as the President himself has recommended, as the WHO has recommended,” he added.
Mr Amoah implored these non-compliant companies to provide them [pump attendants] with the minimum PPE’s so that they are safe, the customers are safe, the companies will also be safe. “Some have refused a we speak and it is very disturbing,” he noted.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
