Workers in Abuja speak after shutting down the retailer’s offices.
ByAbdulkareem MojeedApril 2, 2021 4 min read
Shoprite workers at Lugbe, Abuja, on Friday, embarked on another round of protest, shutting down the company over a row with the management.
Cherish Ogenyi, the unit chairman and coordinator of the northern region of the National Union of Shop and Distributive Employees (NUSDE), an affiliate of the Nigerian Labour Congress, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES described the action as “picketing”.
“What you see happening here today is just a picketing type of strike, that is what the workers came here to do. Just to picket the entrance of Shoprite. Apparently, in a bid to stop them from trading until our pending proposals and demands are met by the management,” he said.
Following the purchase of Shoprite Nigeria by some Nigerian investors, Mr Ogenyi said the workers are supposed to be paid off and not transferred to the new owners without their consent.
He said, “We held a similar strike on March 2, to which they rushed to the Ministry of Labour to lodge a complaint to them, the Ministry of Labour called us and an MOU was reached and agreed upon.”
Mr Ogenyi explained that one of the contents stipulated in the MoU with the Ministry of Labour in Lagos State was that Shoprite must not hand over on or before April 1, until all the parties come together to negotiate the pending agreement they had.
He said; “It was noted on the proposal that they are supposed to pay us off as workers, but we understand that gratuity is not obtainable under the Nigerian Labour Act. It has been expunged in 2004 Act as amended and is being replaced with pension act.
Under the same Labour Act, he said, “we have redundancy and when an entity is sold, the employee role under the old employer becomes redundant.”
