SOME ENUMERATORS of the 2021 population and housing census, especially those operating in the urban areas in some parts of the Eastern Region, are demanding a dog bite risk allowance and other insurance packages from government.
According to them, they may risk being attacked by dogs and other reptiles in homes and remote villages where they will be assigned to, and are therefore demanding insurance against such eventualities.
The enumerators, in a petition addressed to the National Census Officer, and sighted by DAILY GUIDE, demanded that “transportation for the training should be GH¢440.00 as earlier announced instead of GH¢330.00. We should be paid an allowance of the training or per diem of at least GH¢80 per day which will be GH¢800.00 for 10 days.”
They also want the allowance for enumerators to be increased from GH¢2,520 to GH¢3,000 and GH¢2,940 to GH¢3,500.00 for supervisors respectively. “There should be a risk and insurance component added to the remuneration because a dog nearly attacked a participant.
“It is more than surprising to sit for 12 hours each day without any allowance. We would have been better if we were at our respective job posts,” they added.
Meanwhile, the enumerators are agitating over a slash in their transportation allowance that was promised them during the 10-day training.
According to them, they were initially promised GH¢550 for transportation at the end of the training but the amount was reduced to GH¢440 and subsequently to GH¢330.
This has sparked serious concerns with many threatening to boycott the entire census for fear of being short-changed.
However, the Eastern Regional Director of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Bright Worlanyo Neku, when contacted, urged agitating field data collection officers to remain calm, explaining that the mishap was a result of miscommunication.
Commenting on the T&T of the enumerators, now in contention, he stated, “We promised to give them GH¢500 but later on they’ve heard that we slashed it to GH¢440 then now going down to GH¢330 so because of those things they want to boycott the programme. When I went there, I met the facilitators, we discussed the issues, so I explained to the facilitators that this is the situation.”
He added that “the first thing I did was that, during the opening address, the address was sent from Accra from the Chief Executive which was read to them, in that opening address, it was stated that they will pay them GH¢440 for ten days. So where they got that GH¢50 (per day) from I don’t know. It was in that document that the GH¢440 was quoted.”
“But later, we had another communiqué that the GH¢440 was a mistake so it is now going to be GH¢30 for their T&T per day,” he stated.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Koforidua