Workers urge FG to intervene in unfair labour practices at Chinese construction firm

The striking workers at the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) on Thursday appealed to the Federal Government to probe the unfair labour treatment perpetrated by the company.

The over 200 workers who gathered at the premises of the CCECC in Iganmu, Lagos, urged the government to enforce necessary labour laws that would protect the rights of Nigerian workers.

The workers’ appeal is coming after attempts to get the owners of the project, the Lagos State Government to intervene in the impasse which resulted from their “unjust disengagement’’.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workers were engaged by the CCECC for the construction of the light rail line and reconstruction of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway.

They had been on strike since July 21, claiming unlawful sack, poor wage, non-remittance of tax and pension contribution and payment of non-fixed salaries by the management of the company.

The workers, who are bent on not ending the strike until their demands were met, also told NAN that they resumed work on July 20 only to be told that their services were no longer needed.

One of them, Mr Julius Anudu, said that if the government failed to stop the unlawful act perpetrated by the company, many workers would die impoverished.

He said that they had protested to Lagos State Government, noting that when they marched to the state’s secretariat, Alausa, an official did not allow them to see the governor.

They, however, said that the official promised that the government would look into their plight.

“We want the government to look into the issue of workers at the CCECC. We are suffering. I have worked for six years with no fixed salary.

“If I am paid N30,000 in June, in July my salary can be reduced to N25,000 without explanation’’.

Another, Michael Illo, said that there was no provision for medical facility, safety gadgets and pay slip for workers.

According to Illo, a worker can be sacked anytime without a pay-off or with a poor package that does not justify the number of years the person has put in.

He said that workers in the company are not entitled to an annual leave and 75 per cent of them had been sacked without benefit.

Some of the workers also decried the deduction of pension and tax fund from their salaries by the management of CCECC without remittance.

The workers had in 2012, protested over poor pay, sack and poor condition of service.

In 2013, there was another protest when one of the workers’ hand was chopped off while working with a machine on the bridge linking Lagos Island.