Some staff of the National Service Secretariat (NSS) are accusing scheme managers of unfair treatment in ongoing appointments across the country.

The aggrieved staff has petitioned the Board to investigate circumstances under which these individuals were employed by the Secretariat.

The Secretariat since last week is reported to have been issuing appointment letters to newly recruited staff nationwide.

The volunteer office assistants who have been working at the NSS Accra office over the last two years said they have been sidelined in the ongoing recruitment drive. 

They said Secretariat asked to help run the affairs of the Scheme when the organisation was embroiled in a scandal in 2014 but they were not to be employed as there was an embargo on employment then. 

According to some of them, when the green light for employment was given, they applied but none of them has been invited for an interview.

Rather, they claim there are people trooping into the office with appointments letters dated December 15.

They claim the head and management of the NSS have with impunity disregarded and contravened all clauses under the special provisions relating to temporary workers. 

The angry staff, therefore, want to be treated fairly with assurances about gainful employment made to them honoured.

When Joy News' contacted the NSS officials, they confirmed the ongoing recruitment with head of the Secretariat, Dr Michael Kpessah Whyte acknowledging receipt of the petition. 

Below is the petition:

Dear Sir/Madam,

PETITION ON THE ONGOING APPOINTMENT OF NSS STAFF

We wish to express our deepest disappointment at the turn of events within the National Service Scheme in respect to the ongoing recruitment and appointment of staff.

We are a group of Volunteer Office Assistants who were selected and asked to hold the fort of the National Service Scheme in the aftermath of the scandal that rocked the outfit. The head and management of the scheme through the Regional Director wrote to seek our services as individuals to help run the affairs of the outfit.

This was done under the understanding that these were temporary jobs and is most likely to be commuted into permanent working jobs when the Scheme opened applications for appointments and such officers will be considered first.

However, the group has come to realize that even though we have made various sacrifices for the Scheme, for God and our country, our sacrifices have been in vain and moreover thrown into our faces.

When applications were opened for employment and we applied none of us was invited for the interviews that were granted by an external HR consultancy firm neither to talk to us being considered for the positions for which we have been at post for the past two years.

Meanwhile, we believe that we met the qualification and job description that was published.

Dear Sir, we are the infantry to this outfit and we have been in the trenches for the past two years making sure that the Scheme runs effectively and we believe we have acquitted ourselves pretty well for that reason we are very disappointed for not given the opportunity in this recruitment process.