By S. Siapha Mulbah
The government ministry responsible for all transport regulations across the country is battling protestation while resources that should be getting in national coffers are being diverted.
Early Friday morning, March 31, 2023 some aggrieved employees of the Ministry of Transport stormed the compound shutting down its operations in demand of just salaries and other areas owed them.
The action prevented the ministry from conducting normal operational activities thus leaving customers that needed service providers’ attention leaving them with no option but to take back their resources to other areas.
Transport Minister Samuel Wlue threatened to counter react if the protesters continue their weekend action during the start of the new week as they disclosed
He said the aggrieved employees have the right to protest calling their government’s attention to issues affecting them but not to the extent of shutting down a government entity depriving others the rights to carry on regular daily operations.
“It is your right to protest but not to the extent of stopping others from doing what they have to do. You have to be careful of what you are doing because where your right ends is where others rights begin,” he warned.
Minister Wulue then intimated that if locks are placed on the gates of the entity on today, Monday April 3, 2023 by the protesters he will forcefully breakthrough to get to his office to do the work he was appointed for.
Wlue reminded the aggrieved staffers that that the Transport administration has always and will continue to pursue the best interest of its employees
However, the spokesperson of the aggrieved workers Jasper White described the Minister’s statement as a challenge to their demand for a constitutional right.
Jasper said the Ministry of Transport will not function nor raise revenue until the demands of workers for an increment in salaries are addressed.
“The Minister has challenged us and we are not deterred by his statement, we will continue to have this action until the right decision is taken. We at transport will not raise the huge amount we raise daily when our homes are hungry and our children are out of school,” he maintained.
According to Jaspers, today will go down in history because another black Monday is going recorded and those affected by the situation are will to fight event at the loss of their lives.
According to the protesters, the Ministry of Transport has underpaid them over a period of five years as employees despite the huge fund raised through them for government.
Presenting the petition when the head of the entity Minister Samuel Wulue appeared on the scene, the Assistant Director Climate Change at the Ministry, Princess Tarpeh, disclosed that the failure for the government to address employee’s plight after several civil engagements is the cause of the sit-in action.
Madam Tarpeh said issues had been lingering before the authority concerning the situation for a relative long period of time but up to press time there seemed to be no remedy to the situation.
“We the employees of the Ministry of Transport, having engaged the offices of the ministers and by extension pleaded with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning along with both legislative committees on transport regarding low salaries of employees, there has been no positive response or assurance to resolve our concerns,” she said.
She added that the situation had severely affected their socio-economic wellbeing as government workers and as such, they unanimously agreed to gather over the weekend to do a sit-in-action to draw the attention of government.
She intimated that the Ministry of Transport has been overly performing under the current administration and for the past five years, the MOT has been recognized as the highest revenue generating ministry with evidence by the numerous accolades received from the government through the Liberia Revenue authority, yet, it still remains the lowest paying entity across government.
“This painful and hurting issue, which our Minister, Samuel Wulue, has also strived to resolve by engaging the Minister of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) and other stakeholders is yet to be addressed adequately by those in authority,” she added.
The petitioners maintained that there is no need to continue raising revenue as an entity of government when the one already generated cannot impact the lives of those working tirelessly to give government the financial strength.
They added that the Decent Work Act is the main motivation behind their action as employees of government which stress that public sector pays no individual or person anything less than U$150.
The aggrieved employees told media practitioners including this paper that they are earning as low as U$60 which violates the Decent Work Act most especially for professional people who got international trainings in their respective field.