The Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs of Zoomlion, Ghana, Emma Osei-Duah has admitted to delays in the payment of sanitation workers, specifically sweepers.
She clarified that the unpaid period is not up to a year but nine months.
In an interview on Joy FM’s Newsnight on Wednesday, October 2, Madam Osei-Duah said “We’ve not paid some of the sweepers, but it is not up to a year. We have not paid them for 9 months because we have paid four months to each person.”
The delay in payment, according to the company, is due to the nature of the contract with the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), which requires Zoomlion to pre-finance payments before being reimbursed.
Ongoing discussions between Zoomlion and YEA regarding the contract have further contributed to the delays, she added.
This comes after calls from YEA to suspend the management services contract with Zoomlion due to the long-standing payment issues, affecting hundreds of sanitation workers across the country.
YEA’s Executive Officer, Kofi Baah Agyapong, has demanded a review of the arrangement, which affects hundreds of sweepers who clean streets and public spaces across the country.
Under the current contract, Zoomlion is paid GH₵ 850 per sweeper by the government through YEA. From this amount, the company pays the workers GH₵ 250, while retaining GH₵ 600 as management and logistics fees.
Despite this, some sweepers have reportedly gone unpaid for over a year, leading YEA to push for a suspension of the contract and seek a renegotiation to address the growing backlog.
