–As Angry LWSC workers protest with more to come
By Edwin M. Fayia,fayiaedwin@gmail.com
The unpaid wage bill of the CDC government continues to rise, as employees of some government ministries and agencies go without pay for many months, as the government is said to be broke.
More and more protests for pay have been continuing in recent weeks, with the latest being workers of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC), who are agitating for five months arrears. Just before them, workers of the National Housing Authority (NHA) staged a protest for up to ten months of salary arrears.
Angry and frustrated LWSC employees at the weekend stormed the head offices of the water agency in demand of five months’ salary arrears.
The government of Liberia’s international football star-turned politician, George Manneh Weah is finding it difficult to pay public sector workers as inflation has hit double digit.
In several comments with reporters at the Corporation’s head offices on King Sao Boso or Front Street in Monrovia, the striking LWSC employees displayed placards on Friday, November 22, 2019.
One of the placards read: “We want our five months’ pay, our children and families are dying.”
The aggrieved LWSC employees also told reporters that as professional Liberians who are charged with the responsibility to provide quality water services for the nation and its people should not be treated as people of common values to the Liberian society.
The LWSC employees also noted that as critical stakeholders of a commodity that humanbeings cannot go without its daily use adding that, their plight should be treated with the highest degree of urgency by the Liberian Government.
They further urged the Liberian Government to rise above the fray and prioritize the current socioeconomic hardships of the LWSC employees in the country.
“We are indeed an income generating entity of the Liberian Government and therefore our government should muster the courage and be responsive to the social and economic needs of the employees of our vital water agency,” the employees stressed.
The aggrieved employees reminded the Liberian Government that any disruption in the effective delivery of quality water to Monrovia and its environs would have a grave ripple effect on the staggering population of Monrovia and its settlements.
They also called on the Liberian Government especially the Executive branch to immediately act now and intervene swiftly in order to avert a grave water and sanitation crisis in Monrovia and its environs.
“We have totally run out of patience and want our five months’ pay now and not later or the 15 of December 2019 as been advanced by the senior managers of the LWSC,” the employees emphasized.
A senior staff of this news outlet who earlier visited the scene of the strike action Friday observed the main and back entrances of the LWSC head offices were shut down by the disenchanted employees of the water outfit.
A very frustrated 45 year old employee of the water entity who broke down into tears told radio, television and print media reporters that their financial hardships have gone beyond imagination and needed the urgent intervention of the Liberian Government.
“Iam at the moment unable to meet up with my basic and socioeconomic of my family needs such as food, bread and simple tablets for home medication,” the employee asserted.
“We cannot be working for such vital agency of the Liberian Government and continue to endure an unending hardships at the hands of managers that continue to demonstrate acts counterproductive to the decency of its dedicated employees,” a female worker lamented.
Another placard simply read thus, “Pay us our salary arrears so we can restore our dignity, integrity and respect among our families, relatives and friends.”
When contacted vie mobile phone Friday, LWSC Managing Director Duannah A. Kamara swiftly noted that he was under immense pressure and could provide official comment later to this news organ.
Political analysts who have followed the governance system of the Coalition for Democratic Change have pointed out on several occasions that strike and protest actions by Liberians had become the tradition and order of the day in Liberia.