Casualisation: Cancer Of The Nigerian Workforce

ON January 8, this year, casual workers of Dag Motorcycle Industries (Nigeria) Limited, also known as Bajaj Motorcycles, were sacked indiscriminately by the management.

As they gathered to protest what they termed ‘unjust treatment,’ men of the Nigeria Police Force were promptly called in to disperse the protesting former workers.

The policemen duly came, brandishing guns and using tear gas to forcibly disperse the poor armless and certainly hapless ex-workers, who had suddenly found themselves in the labour market.

They claimed a consulting company recruited them for the firm and despite long years of service by many of them, they remained casual workers.

Femi Ogungbenro, their leader, implied that the sack might have resulted from the workers’ demand for appointment letters from their employers.

Ogungbenro, who said he had worked for the firm for over six years, explained that they received notice of their sack via text messages on their phones.

He noted that each worker received N1, 400 on each motorcycle produced and after much clamour for fixed salaries, an agreement was finally reached and he was receiving N55, 000 monthly.

According to Ogungbenro, the agent that recruited them had started advertising for new hands to take over their former jobs.

This is the unfortunate and sad scenario that has beset most Nigerian workers today, even as unemployment, poverty and hunger pushed many more into accepting this inhuman form of labour.

Contract employment and casualisation of labour contravene Section 7 (1) of the Labour Act, Cap 198, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1990.

The law provides that “not later than three months after the beginning of a worker’s period of employment with an employer, the employer shall give the worker a written statement, specifying the terms and conditions of employment.”

The conditions include the nature of the employment and if the contract is for a fixed term and the date the contract expires.

Recently, the organised private sector unions accused employers of hiding behind what they called the ‘core’ value of their businesses to casualise over 70 per cent of their workers.

The unions alleged that the growing culture of casualisation by employers was more common in banks and other financial institutions, insurance firms, food and beverage companies, as well as in the printing and publishing sectors of the economy.

The organised labour noted that in Nigeria presently, companies are replacing their full-time workers with temporary, casual, outsourced and contract workers at a high rate, not caring about what the law says about the illegality of this action.

The Guardian recently visited a victim of casualisation and industrial accident, who would want to be identified as simply Michael, aka Small Boy, at his home in Odogunyan, Ikorodu suburb of Lagos.

When Michael finished secondary school, he struggled to secure admission into higher institution and not wanting to waste away in waiting, Small Boy’s father, a pastor with the UMCA church in Ikorodu, secured a ‘job’ for him at African Steel located at Odonla in the Ikorodu Industrial Scheme area.

Michael described it as a terrible, inhuman place to work.

While at work one day, an iron rod being smelt fell on his hand, resulting in amputation of his right hand.

Since then, he has become sullen and withdrawn. He makes use of a prosthetic hand now and wears long sleeve shirts to cover it.

He added that the Chinese bosses usually locked them inside the factory when they resumed work and only opened the doors when they closed.

Two years ago, fire gutted the building where the workers were on duty and many were burnt to death.

Michael added that the company refuses to staff the workers, preferring to use agents to source workers, who they hire and fire at will.

“The agents are evil Nigerians who brought this idea of casualising Nigerians, and the Chinese are now over-exploiting this.

“The agents sit at home, collecting money from other people’s sweat, while the workers labour daily for peanuts,” he said bitterly.

He confirmed that they were poorly paid and badly treated by the Chinese bosses, adding that many people have become disabled permanently, while others have lost their lives.

Another man, who asked not to ne named, showed The Guardian his hand. He had lost four of his fingers while operating a machine and was promptly laid off, with no compensation whatsoever from the company.

Michael’s father, who refused to be named, pointed out that despite all these horrible stories most residents of the area know about, many still troop to the company daily in search of job, no thanks to unemployment in the land.

Any resistance by the workers is met with instant sack, and since they are not actual staff, they get no benefits of emoluments.

He pointed out that most times, workers are fired for no concrete reasons, but on the whims of the agents, who continually feed fat on the workers’ pains.

The workers are paid according to output and production, which can only be determined by the bosses using their own criteria, and payment is calculated on an hourly basis.

He further lamented that Nigerians are made to do all the hard and dirty work, despite the fact that a good number of them are more educated and experienced than their Chinese counterparts.

Another worker, who called himself John, said the need for urgent employment drove him to the firm.

“I don’t want to be jobless at home; that is why I took work there. As soon as I save enough money, I will look for something else to do, because this is not a way to earn a living.

“Every month or so, a worker is maimed or killed in the line of duty and nobody raises an eyebrow. Nothing is being done to protect us and I don’t want to die like a fowl.”

But saving that enough might not come easy for John under the present condition.

Efforts to speak with the management of African Steel were not successful at the time of going to press.

Manufacturers of Chikki-Chicken noodles are a close neighbour of African Steel located in the same area, and the similarities don’t end there.

Ada (not real name) is a mother of one who trained as an auxiliary nurse. After the private hospital where she worked relocated, she was left jobless and had to take employment with the noodle-producing firm.

She confirmed that most of the workers are casual workers and are paid twice in a month.

“I want to stop the work, as it is very stressful, but how will I survive? We work two shifts- morning and night- and are paid every fortnight.

“The money differs from month to month according to the hours we work. If you work from 7am to 7pm, you are paid higher than if you work from 7am to 5pm.”

When asked to spell out the ‘higher’ payment, she said it varied between N5, 000 and N7, 000.

Ada lamented that when they resume work, they are worked to the maximum with no rest, no off-days and no yearly leave.

The workers also double as cleaners, cleaning the factory after production. If you are adjudged not to have participated in the clean up maximally, your salary is deducted accordingly.

She added that to her knowledge, no one has ever died or become handicapped in the factory, but if you become injured in the course of duty, you would be treated and the money from treatment deducted from your salary.

“The managing director is a Nigerian, but the supervisors are oyinbos (whites) and they belittle us a lot.

“We work more than what we are being paid for, but what can I do? The small money has enslaved a lot of us, but we cannot leave because we have no other source of livelihood,” she concluded.

O.K Foods, located on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, is another firm engaged in casualisation of workers, who are also employed by agents that change them at will.

The workers are paid about N750 daily. Actually, it was learnt that it ought to be N1000, but the agents skim N250 off the top, making a killing in the process.

Despite the poor pay, Nigerians throng the gates daily, looking to be employed, not minding the unstable nature of the job.

Evans Ufeli, a Lagos-based lawyer and human rights activist, explained that casual labour connotes irregular employment or part-time labour, including the labour of workers whose normal employment consists of series of short time jobs.