Cocoa bages being loadered at the port
Carriers have been paid 62 pesewas per bag of cocoa for five years
Carriers are demanding GH¢1 per bag
COCOBOD not paying SNNIT of cocoa carriers
Carriers of bagged cocoa beans at warehouses of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) began an indefinite strike action today, January 5, 2022.
The carriers accuse management of COCOBOD of failing to increase their pay for the past five years.
Speaking on Joy Business, a leader of the carriers at COCOBOD’s Tema warehouse, Godwin Ocansey, said management’s refusal to increase their pay was badly affecting their livelihoods.
“From 4 to 5 years now, our salaries have not been increased for cocoa carriers. They’ve given us 62 pesewas for almost four years per bag until now they’ve not increased it,” he said.
“There were buses that were picking us from our homes to the warehouses that’s the cocoa sheds. They’ve cancelled that one too.
“What the workers are demanding for right now is either CMC pays them or increase the bag to ¢1. It’s either COCOBOD cancels contracts with contractors and pays the cocoa carriers direct, or they increase the pay to ¢1 per bag”, he added.
“This is all the cocoa carriers are demanding from the management of Cocoa Marketing Company and that today the strike begins and it shall continue till they listen to our petition,” he said
A headman of the carriers at COCOBOD’s Kejebri warehouse, speaking on Citi News, reiterated the points made by Ocansey, saying: “the working conditions here are terrible”.
In addition to management refusing to increase their pay, he said they (management) have also failed to pay the carriers’ social security contributions.
“The leadership of this company has treated us unfairly for far too long. There are no provisions for safety, neither do they pay our SSNIT,” he said.