Post a comment
Sierratel Workers on Thursday, December 1st, 2022 stormed the Ministry of Information and Communications at Youyi Building to Express their frustration and dissatisfaction regarding their present plight.
The workers who have gone without salary for seven months expressed their dissatisfaction over the manner they have been treated by the authorities.
“As I am talking, the liability and end of service benefit for Sierratel workers that was projected at eighteen billion leones (Le18Bn) now stand at ninety-four billion leones (Le94Bn). The more the delay to close Sierratel, the more the liability increases,” Interim Secretary of the workers, Edward Kamara said on local radio early this week.
He blamed the Ministry of Information and Communications for the delay to implement cabinet recommendations. He emphasized that the situation at Sierratel is not favorable as workers are facing a series of challenges.
He disclosed that from 2019 to date, they have got four different managers, adding that they started experiencing no salary from October 2021 up to April 2022. He spoke about the series of interventions made by the National Commission for Privatization (NCP) and the Information ministry regarding the privatization of Sierratel.
“NCP told them that the government has agreed to privatize Sierratel and that one Company will take over the institution. The past management presented the salaries, leave allowance, and severance payment of workers to Le18Bn to NCP and the Company that is expected to take over said they will put thirty-five billion leones (Le35Bn). Up till now, workers don’t know what has caused the delay,” Kamara said.
He noted that since some workers retired in 2019 up to date they have neither received their end-of-service benefits nor pension from NASSIT.
