Workers of a Chinese owned company in Ghana have been forced to apologize to dogs belonging to their employers.
The workers of the Ghana Household Utilities Manufacturing Company Limited say those bitten by dogs are not provided with medical care.
Africafeeds.com understands these workers had complained about lack of medical treatment or protection from dog bites for months.
Some of the workers have narrated their experiences in the hand of the dogs to a local radio station Empire Fm at Takoradi in Western Ghana.
Some of them spoke about how any worker who complains of dog bite is forced to write an apology letter to the dog or will face dismissal.
They also lamented receiving no payment of allowances and compensations for injuries from dog bites despite being paid poorly.
Apologize to dogs or get sacked
A staff told the local radio station “If the Chinese managers open their dogs in the night and they bite the workers and you complain, the Chinese owners will ask you to write a letter and apologize to the dog”.
A Ghanaian labour officer, Elizabeth Acquah said managers of the Chinese company were advised to remove their dogs from the company’s premises.
Acquah says Ghanaian officials are shocked the dogs were still around terrorizing workers.
“I will ensure that this thing stops immediately…because dogs cannot be biting human beings and then human beings will then be asked to write apology letters to the dogs.
They were under instruction to remove the dogs. If they don’t we will report to the regional Security Council,” she said.
Acquah also noted that asking workers to apologize to dogs “it is an infringement of their work rights and dehumanization of the workforce, it is not allowed.”
There have been several instances of Ghanaian workers being abused by the foreign employers. Ghanaian officials have done little to stop such abuses.
Many abused workers are unable to leave their jobs for fear of not securing a new job. Ghana is among many African countries struggling to deal with high unemployment figures.
Source: Africafeeds.com
