Dismissed Staff Seek Justice

An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court, Lagos has adjourned till 6 December hearing in the suit filed by dismissed staff of Unilever, a multinational company operating in Nigeria against their dismissal by the company.

The workers were dismissed on 10 November, 2008,  by the company after a protest for better welfare condition. The case which has has been in court since June 2009 has gone through many twists with two of the workers dead in the course of fighting for justice.

Agba  Jalingo,  President of the Nigerian Renaissance Movement , NRM, told P.M.NEWS  that he has been on the matter for over one year and all attempts by the dismissed workers to dialogue with the employers and settle the matter outside the court have proved abortive.

“I and my team have followed up this matter from inception. We have tried to settle this amicably with Unilever without coming to the court but they are not willing to cooperate with us. At a point they said they wanted to settle outside the court but later denied this. They are frustrating the people,” he said

He explained that the dismissed employees are counting on the judiciary for justice, since the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC and the National Union of Chemical Footwear and Metal Products Employees, NUCFAMPE, have decided to turn deaf ears to the workers’ plight.

“The victims wrote officially to the President of the NLC, Comrade Omar Abduwaheed and the President of NUCFAMPE, Comrade Boniface Isok, but they seem not to be interested in the pain and agony of the people they represent. As a matter of fact, I called Isok to know what he was doing about this case and he simply told me that nobody asked the employees to protest. You can imagine, as if one is supposed to take permission before protesting for his or her right,” he stated.

P.M.NEWS gathered that the dismissal of over 64 workers by Unilever was because the workers asked for Christmas bonus and other items like rice and oil so they could enjoy Christmas with their families after working so hard from January to December, but instead of listening to their workers, who have served them for a period of 5-17 years,  Unilever decided to dismiss them without benefits.

Counsel to the workers, Barr.  Amobi Ogudu expressed optimism that the law will prevail in the matter since the judiciary is still the last hope of the common man. “We are working together as a team to make sure that justice prevails at the end of the day, so that these workers can smile again,” he said.

—Kashimana Beba