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Lee Group and abuse of Nigerian workers
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Abdulwaheed Omar, President Nigeria Labour Congress
Barely one week after May Day celebrations in Nigeria and many parts of the world, workers of Lee Group of Companies in Sango Ota, Ogun State, raised an alarm over abuses and inhuman treatment meted out to them by the authorities of the company.
Lee Group, a plastic products manufacturing company with many of its subsidiaries in Kano and Lagos, is a privately-owned firm that has been operating in Nigeria for more than a decade with about 25,000 workers in its employment.
The company's workers at a recent news conference under the aegis of National Union of Chemical, Footwears, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products ( NUCFRLANMPE) alleged that Lee Group is violating Nigerian Labour Laws with impunity. According to the president of the union, Boniface Isok, Lee Group, contrary to subsisting labour laws, recruits under-age workers in its factories and has prohibited union activities in the company.
The company reneged on an agreement in Year 2000 to pay a minimum wage of N7,000 per month to its workers. Instead it went ahead to de-unionise all the unions in its subsidiary companies.The union recalled that Lee Group owned the industry where 80 Nigerian workers were burnt to death in 2002.The company is said to have been exhibiting flagrant disregard for the Minister of Labour despite the minister's intervention aimed at resolving the crisis in the company.
Other complaints against Lee Group included forcing workers to work for 12-14 hours as against the statutory eight hours a day; payment of wages below N8,500 to workers who work for 390 hours per month; denial of freedom of association and assembly as provided for in the constitution; use of village heads and other slave merchants to enforce dehumanizing activities, indiscriminate use of security agents to harass and brutalise workers, among others.
The foregoing is not only pathetic, but painful. Lee Group is just one out of many like it. What is happening in the company is perhaps a reflection of the plight of Nigerian workers in many factories and industries owned either wholly or in part by some foreigners.
It is lamentable that appropriate regulatory authorities appear hamstrung in the face of these abuses, a pointer to the disdain with which our labour laws are treated.
Lee Group has shown no respect for the nation and its labour laws.We wonder whether a company with this kind of disregard for compliance with agreements and laws, is faithful in paying its taxes and meeting its other obligations as a corporate citizen under the law and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In the light of the above, it would be refreshing to know if Lee Group paid any compensation to the families of the 80 workers who died in its factory 15 years ago, and the company's level of commitment to sanctions (if any) after the unfortunate incident.
Recruitment of under-age workers is child abuse which is an offence in international Labour Laws and Nigeria is a signatory to the international convention that abhors this practice.
We feel it is appropriate that the allegations of workers of Lee Group be investigated and if the company is found wanting, deserving sanctions should be imposed. Workers are the engine of growth in any economy and if there is still dignity in labour, the Nigerian worker deserves respect for his/her person, at any level they render their honest and lawful services.
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