SLPA must not delay the payment payees are dying

The Industrial Court recently ordered the Sierra Leone Ports Authority (SLPA) to pay the sum of two billion Leones to 180 redundant workers. The court reached the historic verdict after years if intense legal battle between the redundant workers and the SLPA.

Since the court gave the order, the SLPA has not yet paid the redundant workers thirteen (13) of whom are reported to have already died of hardship and frustration while the others are still living in miserable conditions. We view the SLPA’s undue delay in paying the redundant workers as gross callousness and overt disrespect for the court that gave the order.

Two billion Leones is comparatively a pittance for a giant institution like SLPA which generate huge sum of money on a daily basis. Or has the SLPA decided to wait till all the redundant workers die of starvation so that their monies will be left in the hands of ravenous and unscrupulous officials? It is a blatant human right violation for an institution to redundant workers without paying them off; the world has become too advanced and too civilized for such a labor malpractice.

Certainly, the SLPA was not willing to pay off the redundant workers, otherwise, they would not have sought legal redress in the Industrial Court of Sierra Leone, and such reluctance is still being exhibited by the SLPA’s over delay in paying off the workers even when the court has ordered it to do so.

Hence, we are calling on the SLPA to pay off the workers as soon as possible to prevent the others from dying of hardship. Most of the workers heavily rely on that payment to rehabilitate their shattered lives.

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