On July 5, the Toll Workers of Ghana petitioned Parliament and requested that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo reimburse their members' unpaid salaries for the preceding six months and reinstate them to their prior positions.
According to the association, going back to work will enable members to exercise their fundamental right to a living wage, allow them to live in dignity, and bring in money for the government.
After their march, the association's secretary, Edward Duncan, delivered their appeal to the government, saying, "It is our desire that our supplication for job protection would find favour with you within the shortest possible period."
Petition
First Deputy Majority Whip Lydia Seyram Alhassan and First Deputy Minority Whip Ahmed Ibrahim accepted the petition on the Speaker's behalf.
The association's executive, which included its Chairman Henry Dogbe, First Vice Chairman Richard Amati, Second Vice Chairman Mariam Kareem, and Assistant Secretary Nurata Jibreel, joined the members.
With posters that said things like "My work, my life," "Toll collecting is not the source of traffic," "Pay us our arrears," and "Fulfill your promise to us, Hon. Amoako-Atta," they had peacefully marched to Parliament.
full assurance
When presenting the petition, Mr. Duncan stated that the toll employees would benefit from an executive intervention since they were organised members of the Professionals and Allied Workers Union.
He said that as a result of the suspension of road tolls during the presentation of the 2022 Budget and Economic Policy by the Minister of Finance to Parliament in November last year, some 800 of the association's workers had lost their employment and were now suffering greatly.
The petition submitted to the President stated, "We were assured, Your Excellency, that our monthly salary would continue to be paid until we were transferred, but for the past six months, our paychecks have been in arrears.
They claimed that members who worked for the Tolls and Routes Management Ltd had had their appointments cancelled rather than transferred.
At the same time, the promise to pay their wages had fallen through, and as a result, they had been forced to join the ranks of the nation's jobless, shattering their families and taking their dignity away.
Mr. Duncan emphasised that the Tolls Workers of Ghana's operations were not and never had been reliant on government subsidies.
Contrarily, he stated, "road toll collection is a significant recurring source of cash for the state through the Ghana Road Fund.
tolls collected
According to Mr. Duncan, the private business responsible for administering 20 of the country's biggest tolls, Tolls and Routes Management Limited, on average brought in GH6.2 million every month.
He noted that the average monthly toll collected by the Ghana Highway Authority came to GH900,000.
According to Mr. Duncan, "the total monthly revenue from toll collections is GH7.1 million, which translates to an annual average of GH85.2 million."
In addition to the aforementioned, the secretary stated that 5,952 people responded to an online survey on whether or not to reinstate the road tolls, with 99.6% of them in favour of doing so.
The survey's findings "indicate that a larger proportion of Ghanaians favour the reintroduction of the road tolls," Mr. Duncan continued.
Assurance
When Ms. Alhassan received the petition, she gave the association's disgruntled members the assurance that it would be given to the Speaker for redress of complaints.
She applauded them for using nonviolent protest to seek their right to respectable employment.