General News of Thursday, 25 October 2018

Source: starrfmonline.com

Anger as NIA pays contract staff 3 days salary for 6 months job

CEO of the National Identification Authority, Professor Ken Attafuah CEO of the National Identification Authority, Professor Ken Attafuah

Some contract staff of the National Identification Authority (NIA) are seething with anger after they were paid three days salary for six months job done.

According to one of the contract staff, who spoke to Starr News on condition of anonymity, they have just been paid a little over GHC100 when the NIA owes them about GHC4000 for work done since May this year.

“I started working with the NIA in May and it was just yesterday I received a notification from my bank that I have been paid for August. The amount I received was about GHC133. When we were hired, we were told we will be registration officers. Since I started working at the NIA from May, I have just been paid once and that was yesterday."

“We were about 150 contract workers in all. We have been paid GHC133 so far and that does not in any way reflect the work done. Per the contract, we were to be paid every month but unfortunately, the story is different. Per the contract, we were to be paid ghc48 a day. Per our calculations, the amount owed us is over GHC4000,” the frustrated contract staff told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Thursday.

However, the NIA in a response said the situation will be rectified with time. Spokesperson for the NIA Francis Francis Palmdeti said the salary of contract staff is calculated on daily basis hence the difficulty in computing them.

“There is a plan to reach the contract workers and engage them. We will listen to their grievances and let them know some of the practices they engage in that affect them. There are some workers who come to work but do not go to the field for some reasons. This kind of things make the payment system a bit difficult. Our contract staff have their salary calculated on a daily basis. Information has been sent to the workers to channel issues or challenges to the appropriate office. This challenge the contract workers are facing is nothing that is too big for us to handle. We have the resources to sort them all out after the processes have been followed,” he said.

Contract staff are engaged by the NIA for the ongoing nationwide registration and card distribution exercise being undertaken by the state organisation.