THREE INDIAN nationals who entered into a contract with Western Steel and Forgings Limited (WSFL) of Tema have become stranded in Takoradi after the company allegedly refused to pay their end of contract entitlements, salary arrears and air fare back to India.
Neyaz Ahmed, 42, melting engineer; Shalesh Kumar Singh, 37, pit side engineer; and Saroj Dubey, 40, melting engineer told DAILY GUIDE that since November 2011, they have not been paid, so they have managed to live by buying essential items on credit.
It was also gathered that the contracts of two other Indians, Naresh Paswan, melting engineer and Mohammed Toufique, rolling mill mechanic, who used to work at WSFL have also been terminated and they are in a similar situation.
Several appeals they allegedly made to Pius Richard Tamakloe, Managing Director of WSFL and General Manager, Sanjib Roy, about the matter have all fallen on deaf ears.
�We sometimes drink tea for a whole day and now feel ashamed to go and buy on credit again. It is an indictment on our integrity to borrow or buy food on credit. No money even to buy pre-paid electricity, no food in our refrigerator. The managing director, general manager, human resource manager are all aware of our plight but they said the company is in serious financial crisis,� they said.
The three Indians who are all married with children
claimed their families were also suffering back home because for over six months they had not remitted their wives.
They made a copy of their employment contract with WSFL available to the paper. They were hired through the instrumentality of two Indian general managers of the company, Shiv Nath Upadhya and Amitab Rai.
They started working for WSFL in 2009 till the following year when they were transferred to Western Castings Limited, a sister company in Takoradi.
According to the trio, they received text messages from Tamakloe through Sanjib Roy, General Manager of Western Castings Limited on November 30, 2011 saying��Due to the financial crisis facing the company, most of the expatriates will be laid off on 15th of December. All their emoluments will be fully paid and they will be dispatched to their
countries of origin��
Later a letter headlined �Cessation of Contract�
written and signed by Mr. Tamakloe read ��Management has decided and is by this letter ending the contract with you effective December 12, 2011. The Accounts Department is by a copy of this letter advised to prepare your final entitlement and pay same to you by January 6, 2012.�
The company has however not paid these entitlements. The affected workers were allegedly paid their last full salary in July 2011.
When contacted on phone, Mr. Roy confirmed the Indians had been laid off and said the company was making every effort to pay their entitlements and look for money for their return air tickets adding �it has not been easy.�
He said the company would try to send them one after the other back to India and with time pay their full entitlements but said in January 2012, they paid each of them GH�3,000 as their salary arrears.
When Mr. Appiah, Human Resource Manager of WSFL was contacted, he referred DAILY GUIDE to speak with Roy who was directly involved in all matters relating to expatriate workers.
As for Mr. Tamakloe his phone was �out of coverage area� for a whole week, a situation that was confirmed by Roy.
From Sam Mark Essien, Takoradi
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