The Commissioner of the Ministry of Labor assigned in lower Margibi County, S. Roye Brown, has been commended for recurrently ensuring that two injured workers of the CHICO Construction Company and ICE Water Incorporated in Margibi County receive their just benefits through Social Dialogue.
In 2019, Mr. Blessing Konneh, an employee of CHICO Construction Company filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labor through its Labor Commissioner against his employer for injury sustained on the job.
In his letter of complaint, Mr. Konneh said that he sustained injury on his leg while carrying out his regular assigned duty with the company and explained that following the incident, the management of the company did less in paying his entitlement in keeping with the Decent Work Act of Liberia.
Following months of interventions by the Ministry of Labor through the use of social dialogue in the case “Injured Worker, Blessing Konneh VS CHICO”, the Management of CHICO made a total payment of US$7,500 settlement to Mr. Konneh.
Also, the case involving injured worker, Musa Sesay and his former employer “ICE Water Incorporated” was finally brought to an end and payment in the amount of US$4, 735 was made as benefits.
Mr. Sesay, in 2018, complained to the Ministry of Labor of injury sustained while in the employ of ICE Water Inc. and after a little over two years of intense social dialogue with the management and the injured Liberian employee, finally settlements were recently made by the Management at the Ministry of Labor regional office in Harbel, Margibi County.
Meanwhile, both Mr. Konneh and Mr. Sesay praised the Ministry of Labor through its lower Margibi County Labor Commissioner for successfully bringing to an end their longstanding cases and full settlement of their just benefits in line with the Labor Law of Liberia.
“With the length of time our complaints took with the Ministry of Labor and what we have been hearing about the Ministry, we actually thought that we were not going to get anything from these cases. But today, we want to thank the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Labor for ensuring that our just benefits were paid,” the beneficiaries expressed.
These are just two of several complaints by workers in the country that the Ministry of Labor has resolved applying the social dialogue measures thereby preventing workers from engaging powerful employers in long legal battles which in most times the workers may end up abandoning their case because of unbearable reasons.
Since the introduction of Social Dialogue by the International Labour Organization (ILO), as an effective and efficient mechanism in addressing workplace issues between employers and employees, it has contributed greatly in amicably resolving disputes at various workplaces as well as between employers and employees in Liberia.