Parking Fees Decrease Caused Controversy among Parking Staff in Monrovia

For the second time in a row this month, a noisy protest held opposite the Foreign Ministry building in Monrovia on Monday disrupted traffic grabbed the attention of drivers passing by. It was the latest controversy this week surrounding the Monrovia City Corporation’s (MCC) recent plan to charge fees for people to park their cars in certain areas of the city.

Students working as parking attendants who would normally be checking vehicles for fees paid instead held placards protesting against the City Parking Management’s (CPM) new policy lowering wages, which they argue violates labor laws.

While some parking attendants are on strike, others told FPA that they don’t think management’s decision is wrong.

One of the demonstrators named Jiphine Gehyigon told FrontPageAfrica that the protest was organized to empower students and tell legislators that they needed fair pay or else their school fees would turn them into slaves.

According to a document circulated at the protest, CPM has revised its pay scales for parking attendants.  Whereas parking attendants formerly received a flat wage of US$60 per month, their monthly salaries will now start at US$30 for 301 hours of work per month and increase on the basis of their performance on the job.

Samuel Dorbor, a parking attendant on the picket line, said that management told them that they would now work for a minimum of US$30, with more to come on the basis of a commission scheme.

Dorbor explained that one has to sell 200-250 tickets in one month to make the minimum US$30, and sell 500-550 tickets per month to make the maximum US$75. He described selling 500-550 tickets as “difficult to achieve.”

Dorbor also pointed out that parking attendants’ jobs are being made difficult by monthly permits that the CPM is issuing, which allow pass holders to park anywhere without paying a cent to attendants.

“We had several meetings with management but they seemed not to care,” Dorbor claimed. “So we decided that nobody must work today and that is our decision.”

CPM was previously criticized for what some people argued were unnecessarily high fees. That caught the attention of legislators and Monrovia Mayor Mary Broh, who subsequently reduced parking fees from LD$50 per hour to LD$30 per hour.

Speaking on behalf of CPM on the latest controversy of parking attendant wages, spokesperson Abaku Tumban said that the introduction of the new wage policy is to maintain and hopefully increase the number of university students for whom there is room in the program.

“The funning thing about this is that the attendants have not tried the policy yet to known whether it can work or not,” Tubman said. She explained that the paid parking policy is new and that there have been problems paying workers what was originally promised based on the amount of revenue that the program is bringing in.

“In order to maintain the number of parking attendants that we have, we needed to push harder than expected to make sure that everybody is delivering at the same performance,” she explained. Tubman said that some parking attendants were not working as hard as others, and that the cuts in wages are an attempt to see that all attendants are paid fairly.

“We are trying to make sure that everybody is delivering at the same performance,” she emphasized. Tubman also stressed that it’s not all parking attendants taking part in the strike.

“The reality is, this morning, when we woke up and saw them striking, we called a meeting at 11:00 a.m.,” she recounted. “And only a few of them showed up.”

While some parking attendants are on strike, others told FPA that they don’t think management’s decision is wrong. Parking attendant Amstrong Wesseh said that he thought the policies introduced by management will encourage attendants to take their jobs seriously.

“I want to be frank with you,” he said. “They (CPM) are not attracting seriousness to this work, but only people who want to receive money at the end of the month.” Tubman issued a warning to those who she described as not wanting to work.

“We are not going to keep people who are a liability,” she said. “If your boss gives you a challenge and it is tough but you do not deliver without even trying, I think that that says something about your character.”

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Credit: Monrovia wire

19/06/2012