The employee at the Abelenkpe branch of Marwako Fast Foods in Accra who was allegedly assaulted by her Supervisor says she wnats nothing but justice.
The 25 –year old said she was kept in the facility for several hours after her face was dipped in hot pepper by her Supervisor, Jihad Chaaban, preventing her other worried colleagues from helping her.
Speaking to Philip Ashon, the victim said she wants justice to prevail to serve as a deterrent to both foreign and local employers maltreating their workers.
“I want justice to prevail so that next time when these people come here and work with us, they will know that we have our right to say what is bothering us.”
She also recounted her ordeal, saying: “It was on Sunday, I went to work so after the rain stopped, I was at my department and one Supervisor called me to go and help someone to blend fresh pepper because there was pressure so I went to the Rice department . While I was blending the pepper, the blender was making noise …Then all of a sudden Mr . Jihad appeared and started shouting on me and insulting me, asking me whether I did not know I was destroying the blender , then I told him: ‘Mr. Jihad it is just fresh pepper.’ Before I could open my mouth again, he put my face inside the blender and when I tried taking my face from blender, the pepper split into my eyes and my face…All I could do was to cry.”
She also revealed some unfavourable conditions employees at Marwako go through before their salaries are paid.
She disclosed that their phones are often seized when they arrive at the workplace, and that they are sometimes forced to work beyond the stipulated hours.
Evelyn Boakye earns 300 cedis a month for all the hard work and the ill-treatment she goes through, and even that salary is not paid on time.
“When the month ends, two weeks before they pay or sometimes a week before they pay us. It is high time we let them know we are in our country. Not that if they do something wrong, they give us small money to shut our mouths. It is high time we let them know that we are in our country, not in their country. We cannot go into their country and do this. It will never happen. And moreover their ladies are not working, we are working so they should not treat us like slaves.”
She also revealed how some of her Ghanaian colleagues at the workplace including a Ghanaian supervisor, disagree with her decision to demand justice and are rather encouraging her to claim money from the managers.
She said when the incident happened, her Ghanaian supervisor, one Ali, told her that she wasn’t the first person to have experienced that treatment at the Restaurant, and so she shouldn’t make an issue out of it.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Supervisor , Jihad Chaaban, who has been accused of assaulting the employee has issued an apology to the victim.
Mr. Chaaban, in his letter of apology to the victim, said : “I wish very sincerely to personally apologize to you for the incident of 26th February 2017 at our Abelenkpe place of work.”
He however denied reports that the victim was locked up after the incident, explaining that he rather tried to get help for her.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)