Members of staff of Sunti Golden Sugar Estate Limited, Niger State, have decried what they consider forced casualisation of workers, accusing the company of enslaving Nigerians.
North Central Trust gathered that out of the 1,454 staff in the employ of the company, only 49 are permanent while 1,405 are on contract.
Some of the staff members, who spoke with our reporter under condition of anonymity, said they have severally petitioned the appropriate quarters, including the Chairman, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, Lagos, the parent company for Sunti sugar but that no action has been taken.
The workers, who accused the General Manager, Anlo Du Pisani, of making the casualisation policy a ploy to victimise those who do not want to be humiliated by his wife, said the company was a “slave house’’.
A senior staff of the company said to have left after alleged confrontations with the GM and his wife, told our reporter that he “had a running battle with the GM over enslavement of staff and interference in my job from the wife of the GM”.
The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the wife of the GM would allegedly call him and ask that he should sack a certain staff and if he did not grant her wish, she would call the headquarters in Lagos and stop the said staff’s salary.
He gave example of a staff who was involved in an accident and could not report to work for some days and that the wife of Pisani allegedly insisted that he sacked him for absenteeism but when he refused they forced him to resign.
He also said the GM would allegedly cajole permanent staff to take contracts which were renewable every six months under the guise of increasing their emoluments but that when they converted to contract employment, he would not fulfil his promise but instead victimised them leading to their sack.
Another staff, who has left the employment of the company, also alleged that she was intimidated after she asked that her salary be increased but had to resign before the company sacked her.
She said as a graduate working as a data clerk, her pay was a paltry N35,000 a month and there was no prospect for growth as she was placed on contract.
When the GM was contacted, he forwarded our reporter’s enquiries to one Samuel Iboroma at FMN.
Iboroma, while responding, said the FMN was an equal opportunity employer and Sunti Sugar Estate, as a member of the FMN Group, complied with all FMN policies on recruitment and applicable labour laws in Nigeria.
He also explained that Sunti practised seasonal farming and milling operation and as such employed about 4,100 people at peak periods of the operation and at low periods around 1,000 people.
“No employee in the FMN group is ever sacked or terminated without due disciplinary procedures that guarantee fair hearing as applicable under Nigerian labour laws.
“The wife of the general manager is not a staff of FMN and does not interfere with staff-related matters,” he also said.
