OK Foods management debunks workers’ accusation
The Head of Human Resources, OK Foods Limited Nigeria, a subsidiary of global agribusiness giant, Olam International Limited, Mr. Olusegun Tanimola, and his Engineering counterpart, Mr. Raphael Nwachukwu, have insisted
The Head of Human Resources, OK Foods Limited Nigeria, a subsidiary of global agribusiness giant, Olam International Limited, Mr. Olusegun Tanimola, and his Engineering counterpart, Mr. Raphael Nwachukwu, have insisted that it has a good employer, even consenting to an increase in their fortnightly pay, albeit on a condition.
They were reacting to the week-long protest over poor welfare, among others, by some of the workers.
During a visit to The Nation’s headquarters in Matori, Lagos, Tanimola said: “True, there were agitations about the payment, for which we did our investigations. We found out that there were companies paying below us and some paying slightly above us; so we agreed to an increase of N318 per day to our outsourced (casual) workers, but with the condition of 70 per cent attendance.
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For those who are not able to meet the 70 per cent attendance, we resolved that they would be retained but would continue to earn the old rate.”
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This, according to Tanimola, was to ensure commitment on their part, as the common practice was for the workers to come in at will because they were outsourced staff members, which affects the company’s production output.
He added: “In the arrangement, we also have the operators and feeders categories, who earn more, while the others earn a bit less. But they are also agitating that payment should be the same rate, which we said is not possible. Feeders and operators are very crucial. Without this set of people, others cannot work.”
He said the majority of the workers were actually happy with the increase, especially those that were regular at work, adding that it is only about 15 per cent of them who were adamant and had gone to recruit hoodlums, with whom they were beating and forcing the others to join the protest.
On the complaint of long hours of work, Tanimola said: “The standard working hours in any factory setting for companies that operate two shifts is 7am to 7pm, with a break of one hour. And they were aware of this before they came in, as we usually hold an induction for them on resumption.”
Aside this, Nwachukwu added that the company has been making efforts to resolve their other grievances, such as ordering the withdrawal of supervisors they had issues with, even appointing liaison officers who are direct OK Foods staff members, to ensure that they get listening ears to their complaints.
