from: http://www.africanews.org/west/gambia/

NAWEC staff demand compensation for April 10 injuries

The Independent (Banjul)
June 5, 2000
By N.B. Daffeh

Banjul - Eight NAWEC staff on Monday visited The Independent's offices to
complain of their employer's failure to compensate them for injuries incurred
while protecting what they called the 'brain of NAWEC' from attacks by students
on 10th April.

The angry staff alleged that they risked their lives to save the NAWEC water
tank at Serrekunda, hoping that after the incident they would be compensated.
The staff, who begged anonymity, said they were discouraged by the 'deaf ear'
paid them by the NAWEC management to their request for compensation.

They said they had joined together to stop students entering the NAWEC premises
during the 10th April student demonstration. Some staff, they said, had been
hospitalised as a result of the clash with students.

Speaking on behalf of the group, a middle-aged man who said he had worked for
the company for the past 6 years, said the group of students started throwing
stones at them. He said staff retaliated by also throwing stones, forcing the
students to retreat.

'Without our intervention the whole Greater Banjul Area would be crying for lack of water since all water is treated and distributed to various tanks from the Serrekunda tank. Without our intervention, the place would hav
e been burnt to ashes,' he claimed.

He added that during the incident some of them sustained serious injuries and were hospitalised for some days.

The aggrieved staff claimed that management had promised to compensate them, but to date had not done so. They said they had written several letters to management requesting the compensation but to no avail.

They complained of bias on the part of management whom they alleged 'immediately' compensated the chief mechanic for smashed glass in his vehicle, 'but refused to compensate our blood'.

When contacted, the new NAWEC Managing Director, Mr. Alagie Conteh denied the staff's allegations. He said management did not compensate anyone. 'If people heard that NAWEC is compensating its staff, what do you think the
 Government would say?' he questioned. He said those that came to The Independent were a few out of many. Mr. Conteh further denied receiving any letters from staff regarding the alleged promise of compensation.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Copyright (c) 2000 The Independent. Distributed via Africa News Online
(www.africanews.org). For information about the content or for permission to
redistribute, publish or use for broadcast, contact the publisher.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------