Ghana: Road workers' unions call on government to pay arrears

Two road workers’ unions have called on the government to pay arrears or face job losses and construction delays.

The Association of Road Contractors (ASROC) and the Progressive Road Contractors Association (PROCA) say the government should have settled its GH¢180 million (US$62 million) bill 16 months ago, and that the failure to do so has left 68,000km of the country’s roads in a poor state of maintenance, posing a threat to road users and vehicles transporting both goods and passengers.

Speaking at an Accra press conference, ASROC’s national chairman  Joseph Ebo Hewton, who made the appeal, raised the concern that  delayed payment was not only affecting the industry, but other  sectors such as agriculture too. Poor roads mean that farmers are unable to transport their produce to market centres and, as a result, lose revenue.

Also contributing to the discussion, the general secretary of the Contractors and Building Materials Workers' Union of Ghana, Pius Quainoo, said that 10,000 building and road construction workers had been laid off because of delayed payment by the government.  “The soaring unemployment has economic and social negative consequences on the country, and it doesn’t give good image publicity to the building and construction sector in Ghana,” he said. 

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