Over 75 casual laborers at Sinyanya ferry landing construction site in Obongi, Moyo district have laid down their tools over non payment of their daily allowances.
The workers, who started the strike during the Iddi day, accused the local contractors of failing to pay their money yet they know they have families and need money to feed them.
Each of the workers is demanding 20 days’ payment at a rate of 10,000 shillings a day. The workers claim the money has accumulated to 15 million shillings but the managers led by the site engineer, Ambrose Mwesigwa have refused to tell them when they will be paid.
The strike has paralyzed work at the site as the workers say the site engineer has already disappeared without giving them proper explanation about the money.
In their petition to Moyo RDC, John Abingwa, the workers claim they had agreed with the contractor that every day they would be paid 10,000 shillings, adding that they were to be paid every ten days but now the agreement has been breached by the contractor.
They say because of this they now don’t want to continue with the work but the contractor should pay them before they leave the site.
But when contacted over the strike, Ambrose Mwesigwa confirmed that it is true the workers have not been paid their arrears that have accumulated to over 20 days but the amount is not as they claimed. He says all the workers are not getting 10,000 shillings as they claimed. According to him, some of the workers are paid 5,000 shillings per day and others 10,000.
Mwesigwa allayed the workers’ fears that in September all the arrears will be sorted and those who don’t want to work will be asked to leave.
Construction of the landing site that is supposed to link a new ferry from Obongi in Moyo district to Adjumani district started last year and was expected to have been completed by end of August 2011.
