BUCHANAN – A 35-year-old man, James Kiazolu, who lost three of his fingers to an industrial accident in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, is demanding an Indian-owned company, Liberia Hardware, to employ him or pay him US$30 thousand in benefits.
As a result of the industrial accident, two of Kiazolu’s fingers were amputated, while another was left crippled and no longer useful.
Kiazolu, who sustained the crippling injury on August 1, 2022, while working as a carpenter in the woodwork shop of Liberia Hardware, joined the company the year earlier as a contractor.
Following the accident, the management of Liberia Hardware footed Kiazolu’s medical expenses and also paid him his salary throughout the period while he nursed his injury, Rural Reporters News Network (RRNN) has been reliably informed.
However, when he gained recovery, Liberia Hardware management gave him a hundred thousand Liberian dollars in benefits, and through Labour Ministry’s intervention, the company was asked to employ him.
But Liberia Hardware has since reneged on the Labour Ministry’s employment directive and has instead offered him a three-month contract, which Kiazolu has rejected and is demanding from the Indian-owned company full employment status or US$30k as a settlement benefit.
The aggrieved carpenter has filed a formal complaint to the Ministry of Labour Grand Bassa County Office, asking for employment status with Liberia Hardware or a settlement package from the company in the tune of US$30 thousand.
Meanwhile, Liberia Hardware’s local manager, Alex Boe, has confirmed that Kiazolu sustained the injury while working for the company but asserted that the management took full responsibility for his medical bills.
He however stated that the management of Liberia Hardware is willing to dialogue with Kiazolu, issuing a disclaimer that the company has no plan to dismiss the aggrieved carpenter.
RRNN has reliably learned that the management of Liberia Hardware and the Grand Bassa County Office of the Ministry of Labour are poised to shortly have with Kiazolu a conference aimed at quelling the impasse between him and the company.
Edited by Olando Testimony Zeongar
