CCECC construction workers protest sack, poor wage
(Nigeria) Workers at the China Civil Engineering
Construction Corporation, CCECC, on Wednesday continued their protest over what
they said was unlawful sack and poor wage by the management of the company.
No fewer than 100 workers barricaded the Iganmu office of
the company in Lagos to protest their sack by the CCECC management.
Some of the workers, who spoke at the office located inside
the national Theatre Complex said that they were disenchanted with the manner
which the management disengaged them.
Mr Simon Uje, one of the workers said that they were
aggrieved because they were sacked without notice by the company handling the
Lagos State Government rail project.
``We came to work on Monday and today we resumed for duty
only to be told that our services are no longer needed. A worker will resume
and work by 8 a.m., and close at 12 p.m., and the person will be sacked without
pay and no prior information. This is sad,’’ Uje said.
Another worker, Mr Rufus Adebayo said that they worked every
day for a month without an off day and received between N30,000 and N35,000.
``The workers have no free day. Some of us have worked with
the company for four to five years but there is no condition of service and no
letter of appointment,’’ Adebayo said.
Another, Mr Bello Yusuf, said that the workers do not have
basic welfare package such as a health scheme to protect them because of the
hazards of the job.
Yusuf said that monthly, N600 was being deducted from their
salary as union due, but the workers’ rights are not well represented.
He appealed to the CCECC management to properly remunerate
and provide better work environment for them.
However, an official, who did not disclose his name before
he was hurriedly invited to a management meeting said that the company was not
owing the workers.
The source said the management had the right to sack workers
and re-employ them on contract as was applicable globally.
Mr Babatunde Liadi, General Secretary, National Union of
Civil Engineering, Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers, told NAN that they
had not been informed of the crisis in the company.
Liadi gave an assurance that officials from the state
council of the union would visit the CCECC office to intervene in the matter.
It was learned that the Lagos State Chairman of the
construction workers union, who was simply identified as Mr Joshua, was already
having a dialogue with the management of the company.
In 2012, the workers also protested over poor pay, sack and
poor conditions of service.
In 2013, there was another protest when one of the workers
had his hand chopped off while working with a machine on one of the bridges.
Meanwhile, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA,
owner of the rail project, has said it only awarded contracts to the company
and monitors the progress of the job.
LAMATA’s External Relations Specialist, Mr Kolawole Ojelabi,
said that the agency was not involved in the payment of the labourers’ wages or
oversees their employment.
``We have given the job to the Chinese company; if there is
any issue between the workers and the company, I think its management should
resolve it with them. Except if there is any damage on the infrastructure by
any worker, then LAMATA can come in.
``We give them job and we pay them, labour laws do not
stipulate that if you give somebody a contract, you are to pay his or her
staff,’’ Ojelabi said.
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