Kumasi, June 9, GNA - The ex-workers of the Omnibus Service Authority (OSA) in Kumasi have petitioned President John Agyekum Kufuor to personally intervene to ensure that their severance awards are paid without further delay.

Since their retrenchment in 2004, they have not received payment of their awards and this, they said, was making life more difficult and unbearable for them. Five Union Executives of the defunct OSA signed the petition, copies of which were made available to the press in Kumasi. They complained that the payment of the awards were long over-due saying, "we are suffocating to death in the face of the current high cost of living and the fact that formal employment is hard to come by these days.

We believe when we are paid, we will have opportunities to set up pour own small businesses to contribute our quota to national development". The ex-workers stated that they had not been fairly treated by the government, after OSA's intensive preparation to participate in the mass transportation system.

"Indeed, it was OSA workers who formed the nucleus of the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) operations in 2002. Ironically, after helping the MMT to find its feet, government decided to terminate the appointment of the entire workers of the OSA", they added