Min. Kruah Clarifies Employees’ Dismissal -Updates Public On Labour Ministry Activities –

By H Matthew Turry

MONROVIA – The Minister of Labour, Cllr.  Cooper W Kruah has spoken of a wide range of issues including dismissal of employees when he addressed the regular press briefing of the Ministry of Information Culture Affairs and Tourism yesterday, Thursday, June 20, 2024.

The Labour Minister spoke of allegations raised by the Liberia Labour Congress (LLC) on the interference of the Labour Ministry in the activities of the LLC, and said, “There was a leadership crisis within the Liberia Labour Congress which ended up to the Supreme Court, and at the final hearing of the case, the court in resolving the issue, order the Ministry of Labour to conduct a new election within the Liberia Labour Congress.

And by that mandate, the Ministry by then before we took over arranged, conducted, and supervised the election and was held among members of the Unions in Liberia.

According to Cllr Kruah, there are 26 Labour Union Organizations currently in Liberia.  He noted that on the date of the elections, 19 of the Labour Union in the country participated and 7 out of the 26 Unions esteemed.

“So, by the mandate of the Supreme Court, the government has to recognize the decisions that were made by the majority members of the Unions in Liberia. So when we took over, we began working with the new leadership that came from the elections.

“Fashion of the Liberia Labour Congress had an interview that the Labour Ministry is interfering with the activities of the Congress. That information is false and misleading”, he clarified.

Speaking on the uniformity of Inspectors, Minister Kruah said, “When we took over, we noticed that individuals or employees of the Ministry could not be distinguished and we thought that arrangement was loose, and as a controlled mechanism, we distributed uniforms for our Inspectors.

“The uniforms are numbers, the reason for that is, if we receive a complaint from any business house or individual that our Inspector went on their premises and either misbehaved to track the person. And since we instituted those measures, complaints have been very limited and have been working well.

“We took another step, that says before an Inspector carries out any inspection in the leeward counties, you must have a letter from the Minister and the letter be taken to county Superintendent for introduction before the team can carry on any exercise in the county”, he explained.

The Labour Minister while commenting on the recent dismissal of five employees said, “Recently, we ordered the dismissal of five persons. Why do we do so, because they impersonated as Inspectors and not.

“For example, you have Edwin S. Seebo who led the team, works in the Child Labour department, he is not an Inspector, then you have Victor S. Whymah, he is a planning officer, Samuel S. Sambola is an HIV local person within the ministry, you have Bill S. Ninneh who is a Special Assistant to one of the Assistant Ministers, and Raymond Saah.  They chartered a private car from Monrovia to go Gbarpolu and started arresting people, arresting aliens collecting their passports. They have 11 passports in their possessions”, Cllr. Kruah narrated.

They did not have authorization from any Minister, so there must be a motive, so those people are dismissed and they will no longer be part of the Ministry.

The Labour Minister further said, “We have a responsibility to contribute to the revenue generation of this country, we have a target to meet. For the past two months, when we started this enforcement our monthly collection has increased to eight hundred thousand (800,000.00) United States dollars, which I think is good for the government and anyone who tries to undermine that process will be dealt with in keeping with the law. That is why we dismissed people.

“In the next few weeks, we will begin an exercise with the citizens of ECOWAS member states in Liberia. They are required to pay for a work permit in the tone of one hundred (100), United States dollars annually. We noticed that this area has been overlooked”, Kruah disclosed.