By Muyid Deen Suleman, GNA
Kumasi, June 10, GNA – The strike by staff of the National Identification Authority (NIA) has left hundreds of prospective Ghana Card applicants in limbo at the offices of the Authority in Kumasi and other districts in the Ashanti region.
The action, which was announced by the leadership of the staff union on Sunday June 09, 2024, bit hard on prospective applicants who went to the various NIA offices on Monday morning to work on their Ghana card.
A visit to Ashanti regional office and some district offices in Kumasi by the Ghana News Agency, saw scores of prospective applicants stranded and not knowing what to do.
The strike is in protest of alleged poor working conditions at the Authority and the failure of the management to sit down with the aggrieved workers to negotiate and resolve the issue.
The union stated earlier this year that it had deferred the strike notice, which was scheduled to take place in March 2024, following the intervention of the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations.
However, the Ministry and the government have since then failed to address their concerns, hence the need to embark on industrial action to press home their demands.
Some of the devastated applicants, who spoke to the GNA at the Ashanti regional office of the NIA, said they had travelled long distances to work on their application and the strike action would affect them since they needed the card urgently.
Some of them criticized the government for putting a deaf ear to the demands of the workers, knowing that the national identification card was a crucial document needed by the people for various transactions in the country.
They called on the government and relevant stakeholders to promptly address the concerns of the staff for them to return to work.
GNA