LOCAL EMPLOYEES IN FOREIGN-OWNED COMPANIES
Foreign-owned companies must work within the law
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu recently spoke about the plight of Nigerian workers in the service of Asian-owned companies in the country while receiving a Chinese delegation led by the Chairman, Standing Committee of Qingdau Municipal Peoples Congress, Wang Luming. With tales of how Nigerians in these companies are forced to work under the most hazardous conditions, and often without requisite workplace safety measures, Kanu warned that the situation must change.
In several cases, the affected workers or their next of kin receive little or no compensation even when accidents that led to their deaths or permanent injuries occurred at their places of work. Indeed, not only are the Nigerian workers in the employ of these companies subjected to inhuman treatment, but they are also made to work for long hours and paid ridiculous wages. On the other hand, the Asian workers brought into the country, many of them with lesser qualifications and probably with no work permits, are paid stupendous wages.
This is not only a breach of the extant labour laws, but also a contravention of the Nigerian constitution. Also guilty of these inhuman practices are some of the foreign construction companies who load their Nigerian workers to their sites in modified cargo containers attached to trailers while their foreign supervisors cruise in chauffeur-driven SUVs. Some of these companies are also reported to be in breach of provisions of existing labour laws especially with respect to perpetual casualisation of some of their Nigerian employees, thereby denying them job security and appropriate benefits such as health insurance and pension scheme.
Unfortunately, the affected workers do not have the luxury of opting out of this enslavement because of the unprecedented level of unemployment in the country today. They are left with the option of choosing between the devil – in this case, their employers – and the deep blue sea, which is the ever-expanding unemployment market. Yet both the government and organised labour seem to look the other way while all these evils are perpetrated against Nigerian workers. Apparently because of the desperate drive of government for foreign investment and substantially because of the endemic corruption in the country that makes it possible for relevant agencies saddled with monitoring the enforcement of labour laws to be compromised, these workplace abuses are perpetrated with impunity.
More unfortunate still is that not much has been heard from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a constitutional body which is mandated to ensure that Nigerians are not denied their fundamental human rights as provided under Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution. In this case, the right to dignity of human person and right to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of place of origin and circumstance of birth are being infringed upon. We therefore strongly condemn these inhuman and undignifying labour practices and call on government to urgently put an end to the violation of the rights of Nigerian workers by ensuring compliance with extant labour laws. We believe no responsible government would allow its citizens to be subjected to such dehumanising treatment by foreign companies.
While government may be driving for increased foreign investments, potential investors must be made to understand that we are a nation governed by laws and those laws must be respected at all times. We also call on organised labour to play a key role in putting an end to these practices by helping to identify those companies engaging in the abuse of Nigerian workers and reporting them to the appropriate authorities.
