After months of mediation efforts, about 646 former and current workers of the African Construction Company (AFCON) are now being paid US $ 373,002 for their unexpired term of employment contract.
The intervention came when over 615 aggrieved contractors of AFCON, a company of AML, reportedly recently blocked the railway used by ArcleorMittal Liberia (AML) to transport ore from Yekepa, Nimba County to the port of Buchanan in Grand Bassa.
According to reports, the protestors were demanding salary arrears which they claim the construction company owes them when work was suspended due to the outbreak of the Ebola pandemic in Liberia.
During the 2014 Ebola crisis, AFCONS laid off nearly 700 workers with an understanding that when work recommences after the crisis, they would be first to be re-employed but, AFCONS failed on its commitment to recall the workers to complete their respective contract time and instead employed new set of workers.
The Government of Liberia instituted several health restrictions including the number of persons that were allowed in certain social, political and economic spaces, which caused many national and international entities to slow down on their operations.
The aggrieved AFCON workers threatened that if the company does not compensate them for the months they were asked by the company to stay home due to the Ebola outbreak, the operations of the company shall continue to remain shut down until further notice.
“We did not bring Ebola in this country. It was a health disaster which affected everyone, and we should not be punish for it,” the spokesperson of the aggrieved workers, Joshua Sarwular, said.
Mr. Sarwular observed that AFCON was sub-contracted by AML for the constructions of its washing plant in 2014 in Yekepa, but due to the Ebola outbreak, the company asked workers to stay home in compliance with health restrictions that were enforced by the government.
He said when the company resumed work thereafter, it could not redeploy all previous employees or contractors adding, “They said it was due to financial constraint and the global economy downturn of the mineral.”
The Ministry of Labour ruled in favor of the aggrieved workers that AFCONS should settle with the workers the remaining term of their employment contract since it failed to employ them.
Meanwhile, the Bea Mountain Management has also reached an agreement with aggrieved employees, paving the way for workers to get a ten percent (10%) salary increment, as well as standardization of their employment statuses.
The deal was reached following interventions by the Government of Liberia, represented by the Ministers of Labour, Internal Affairs, and the leadership of the Liberia National Police, aimed at resolving a strike action that affected the company’s operations.
