Wahum recalls 250 workers, sacks 40

Wahum recalls 250 workers, sacks 40

Few days after it recalled its sacked 250 workers that protested against its low wages, Wahum Packaging Ltd., Ogba again on Tuesday sacked 40 of them.The 40 affected workers said they were dismissed because they were seen as leaders of the March 21, 2013 protest against inhuman treatment and meagre wages paid by the company.Reliable Click had exclusively reported the protest on March 22.

Our correspondent learnt that part of the sacked workers’ offences was allowing themselves to be interviewed and photographed during the protest.Workers who were identified in the published photograph in The PUNCH were sacked.Also, those whose images were captured by the company’s CCTV were fired.Wisdom Alphonsus, John Odiase, Emmanuel Ojo and Dare Ayebo, who spoke on behalf of the affected workers, expressed shock.

Alphonsus, 23, said new workers were employed on Wednesday (yesterday) immediately to fill their positions.He said, “I went to work on Tuesday to resume my night shift duty. But I was not allowed into Wahum’s premises. One of the guards told me that a list was pasted on the notice board. He said if I didn’t find my name on it, then I should consider myself sacked.

“Those who were dismissed were workers who led the March 21 protest. Is it a crime to fight for my right?”

Odiase, 23, said he also found out from the list pasted that he was sacked.

He said, “They told me that I was the main man leading the protest, and that was why I was sacked. The guards said they had evidence against me, which is my picture in the newspaper.

“I felt like fighting and shouting at them, but I am nobody. They have shown me that they are stronger. I don’t know the actual amount I earn. We don’t even know anything about our pension accounts.”

Odiase said after the protest, Wahum increased workers’ salary by a margin of N900, making the new salary N17,500.Ojo, 24, said that prior to his dismissal, he had been threatened by a senior official of the company, who told him that he would not continue working in the company because of his role in the protest.

“Yesterday (Tuesday), the guards told me that the CCTV had captured my image while protesting.  The Asians who owned Wahum did not recognise the protesters, but the Nigerian guards pointed us out to them.”

Ayebo, 22, said his crime was holding a banner with the inscription, ‘No More N16, 600’.

The workers said they had decided to petition the Lagos State Government through the Office of the Public Defender.When our correspondent went to get Wahum’s comment on the sacking, he was directed to Wahum’s head office at 2, Adeniyi Jones Avenue, Ikeja.However, an official at the office said the head office was “unrelated” to the Wahum factory at Ogba.