No To Slave Labour At Dangote's Savannah Sugar Company

By Victor Osakwe

The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) hereby condemns the management of Dangote Savannah Sugar Company Plc in Numan, Adamawa State for subjecting workers of the company on conditions akin to slave labour.

Workers of the company protested recently in anger at the condition of slave labour they have been put. According to the workers, 80% of the staff of the company are casual workers. Many of these casual workers have worked for upward of seven to eight years yet they remain casual workers in absolute disregard for Nigeria’s labour laws. They work from 7am to 6pm under terrible working conditions and are paid a peanut of N500 per day.

The actions of the company in placing workers on casual labour for seven and eight years, making workers work from 7am to 6pm and paying a wage of N500 per day are criminal, illegal and violate laws of Nigeria regulating the employment of labour and international conventions on labour matters like the International Labour Organisation (ILO) etc.

In our view, the condition under which the workers are placed is over exploitation of labour in order to squeeze out superb profit for capital. It is not therefore surprising that the owner of the company, Aliko Dangote was recently named as the richest man in Africa with net worth of around $13.8bn. It would not be out of place to conclude that the source of his wealth is the super exploitation of the blood and sweat of poor workers not just in the Sugar Company but in all other companies under the Dangote Group.

The slave labour in Dangote Savannah Sugar Company Plc is not an isolated case; it is a pattern that can be seen in all the factories and companies in Nigeria. The failure of the Inspectorate Division of the Ministry of Labour and other authorities to discover this shows the inefficiency as well as the fraudulent conspiracy which officials of the Ministry and government have always had with private business to overlook clear cases of anti-labour sharp practices in exchange for money. Besides, Dangote is about the private chief financier of the successive presidential candidates of the ruling PDP since the advent of civil rule. This explains why he enjoys an almost total monopoly in commodities trade and manufacturing in the country.

We call on the Nigeria Labour Congress and relevant industrial unions to intervene in the plight of workers at not only Dangote Savannah Sugar but also all the sweatshops nationwide including those under Dangote Group where casualisation, slave wage and inhuman working conditions are the norms. The employers must be compelled to obey the Nigeria’s labour laws, respect dignity of labour and principle of decent work and pay minimum wage to workers.
However the situation in Dangote Savannah Sugar Company Plc has again confirmed that the unjust system of capitalism far from guaranteeing prosperity for all always ensures that only a few clique get superbly rich on the back of the majority- the working class. Dangote’s multi-billion empire has been built on the creaking backs of laboring masses in Nigeria. It is only by reorganizing society along a more just and egalitarian lines wherein the commanding heights of the economy are nationalized and placed under the control and management of the working masses that majority of Nigerians can actually enjoy a prosperous and comfortable life.

We hereby demand:

(1)   The immediate regularization of the appointment of the workers most of whom have been casual workers for as much as seven to eight years in flagrant disregard for Nigeria’s labour law and the International Labour Organizations (ILO) conventions on the rights of workers.

(2)   Placement of the workers on the new N18, 000 National Minimum Wage without retrenchment.

(3)   Inclusion of elected representatives of trade unions in the Inspectorate Division of the Ministry of Labour to ensure strict monitoring of companies and factories in Nigeria as well as discipline of companies acting in disregard of labour laws and conventions.

(4)   Improvement in working conditions and compliance with the eight-hour working day.

(5)   Respect of workers’ rights to form and join a trade union.

(6)   Control and management of the company by elected democratic committee of workers as a step towards nationalization of the commanding heights of the economy under workers’ democratic control and management.
 
 
 
 
 
Victor Osakwe
Secretary, CDWR
 

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Is there any good thing like

Is there any good thing like an idea, innovation, inspirational leadership and such to better a life, business or someone that in this article? my site

Hello, thank that you have

Hello, thank that you have posted, because this is exactly my opinion. Greetings, Italien

that all may be well.

we thankgod for everything 'cos all would be well.

SLAVERY IN NIGERIA

WHITE SLAVE MASTERS ARE BETTER THAN BLACK SLAVE MASTERS. WHAT DO YOU GUYS FEEL ABOUT THIS ?

contd

A school where we pay more than a hundred thousand naira on accomodation each and they squeeze five people into a room like sardine. A school where even the main lecture hall has no ventilation. A school where the insects are like those seen on jurasic Park/ zoo. A school where lies are told by the university officials to the students like bed time stories. A school where the thot of forming a student union will lead to suspension. i could go on and on and on.
i am calling on u to check my story out and be a voice to the students of the university that are still there.
thank you…. Prince

caleb uni

pls i am calling on sahara reporters to run s story on Caleb uni. on the injustice done on students. a school where you pay N505,000 and still you have no water to bath with in the morning and no light to sleep with at night. A school where the authorities are only concerned with YOU WEARING SUITS WITHOUT PROVIDING A CONDUSIVE ENVIRON FOR IT AND FOR THE GIRLS how long your skirt is and that you have no make- up on instead of bothering on the academic performances of the student.

CASUALISATION

sugarcane farming is seasonal,yet Dangote pay these people throughout the year.Let them be honest with themselves how much they collect on a monthly basis! N40,000.00. I stand to be corrected.

second, permanent staff on dangote payroll, for example fresh graduate recieved nothing less than 150,000 per month everything inclusive.

a part from government, no other tycoon employed nigerian irrespective of tribal or religious consideration like dangote.

the born of contention has been land compensation which did not concern dangote. let them go and ask Adamawa government, their rapacious ruler-Asap Zadock for their money and stop their baseless agitations which was nothing but blacl belle!

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I am begging saharareporters on investream. com, to help me in this isue, i purcharsed a shares of DAGOTE FLOUR MILLS since the year 2007, no certificate, an i was ask to go to OCEANIC Registrer and signed my signature curent signature, I sent to them, for more than 5 times,all effort is in vain.kindly help me through this email address, if they will answer you, to recover my money or my share. thanking you.
jummaitonnasgyangltd@yahoo.com

Dangote is good for nothing

Dangote is good for nothing robber who robs the poor to enrich the richer and bribe govt to maintain one man licence to import suger, flour, salt, cement etc, i wish God's judgement start immidiately he would not have peace.

loVE your BROTHER as YOURSELF.

.................What am saying is that dangote is good guy but he's needs to learn from the richer guys, have you every wonder why abiola just died like that (what was he looking for in the presidency). there's always a judgment day on earth. If you go aborad, and go shopping in wallmart, you'll see alot of big fine cars parked outside, if you leave the shopping mart and go back in 3 hours you'll still see some of those cars parked outside, if you come back the next day, you still find same set of cars outside, why cos they are wallmart workers. interesting. ( we africans take pride in superiority and inferiority) I heard a governors son in Abia state slapped a man cos he didn't leave the supermakert when he came in, "dont you know everybody should leave when I come into the supermarket". the only thing governors son didn't know was he slapped a military man. Well you can put 1 and 2 together to picture the end. One day be one day.

LOVE your BROTHER as YOURSELF.

Think deeper, there are other countries that dont have half of what we have in Nigeria, yet they are better, a million times better. Now you also saying Dangote has work hard, no doubt you are right. But lets look at bill gates, richard branson, warnner brothers and so on. Do they slave workers. No, and they are tens time richer than our brother. see the truth is we think we have money in Nigeria once we have big cars, houses and so on. there's more to it, thats why you see a whole senator with lots of security escorts sitting in a train like every other person in UK. thats life. the Muslim understand better. thats why the do that style of burial............

Who is this aliko Dangote?

Salt,Sugar,Flour,Cement,Pastas,Oxygen and Water all means Dangote to an ordinary Nigerian,yet poverty clinches to the cloaks of his kindreds.He is the Rich surrounded by wretches,squalid mean people that fuels abject poverty in Nigeria.let him aloneto bear HIS own cross.

A Nigerian 4 that matter

His grand children will do the same thing. Dont complain to any Government cos they are birds of a feather. Pray to God to reck him and all the bad people of our country.

Well said - God bless you

Well said, God bless you for this comment.
This is one of the reasons why Aliko Dangote monopolises almost every Industry in Nigeria, so as to avoid competition and also to pay peanuts for long hours of hard earned labour wages. He is enriching himself by not paying the right wages to his workers, that is what I call a slave master. You need to see how the drivers of his trucks drive on Nigrian raod with impunity, despite the fact that it is Dangote that is preventing the rehabilitation of our Railway systems, just so he can monopolise the transport system. Wicked man.

This is not an issue of

This is not an issue of employer of labor. What is worth doing, is worth doing well. If you are going to employ people to work for you, then give them good conditions of service. So because someone is employing over 1000 graduates and paying them N10,000 a month, he should be hailed as an employer of labor?? That is arrant nonsense and crap. The Nigerian Government should create and put into place certain labor laws that will protect employees from all this exploitation and slavery. Salaries and Wages of workers should be reasonable. Dangote climbed to the top of the Billionaires list by employing and underpaying his staffs, thereby cornering all d money for himself. If not for unemployment, why will somebody go and work under such draconic conditions. NLC and the Ministry of Labour should better take not and act on this. The National assembly had better do something about all this private companies employing people and treating them like slaves.

Kudos to Dangote.let stop contract work.

Am a staff to one of the oil company.
let me be frank too.Dangote try for paying such,i foughf federal govt becos.most of our senators,directors,are resigning and coming back as contractor to the same company and re enslave the work.ds make me remember where i was,we are ask that all junior staff will be outsource!! an oil company what to do that to direct staff.we have no union.and they pay less than 40k a month.well our govt shuld be sue for model-slavery.also i want NLC to move from one company to others if truly they are for nigeria labour..

DANGOTE

I AM A FORMER EMPLOYEE OF DANGOTE FLOUR AT CALABAR AND I HAVE THIS TO SAY .REGADLESS OF THE FACT THAT SOME OF THESE ALIGATIONS ARE TRUE (BECAUSE I HAVE WITNESSED SOME)REGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT I WAS TREATED LIKE A MULE FOR FOUR AND A HALF YEARS,AND REGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT AFTER RESIGNING THEY DIDNT GIVE ME A KOBO.GOD WILL STILL CONTINUE TO BLESS THE MAN ,FOR HOW MANY WEALTHY NIGERIANS CAN YOU COUNT THAT ARE EMPLOYERS OF LABOUR AND ARE AS DETRIBALISED AS HE.THE FAMILIES OF THESE EMPLOYEES MANAGE TO FEED AND THEY GIVE THANKS TO THIER LORD.AND THIER LORD IN RETURN SMILES DOWN AT HIM.BUT LETS NOT FORGET HE IS BUT ONE MAN WITH SO MUCH INVESTMENT.SOME OF HIS MANAGERS SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE FOR THESE DESICIONS.

What is the cost of doing

What is the cost of doing business in nigeria?and if you think the indians are more expensive than nigerians think again becuase with less than 500naira a day you could have indians perform the duties of a manager in nigeria....they are generally cheap...
I know a nigerian who is on 6 figure salary with dangote(VI office) and i know another nigerian who is on 600naira a day(ikorodu spagethi factory) but its all economic of scale and that does not mean that capitalism is a bad idea afterall communism makes you works for free for the so called basic ammenities...
Dangote slaved his back also to get to where he is today and you know how the principle of buffalo theory fits perfectly to nigeria's situation so if financing ruling parties is his strategy for survival so be it...

Let it start with the Federal Govt

For many of us that have abused Dangote here, how many of us engaged a driver or maiguard in our various homes and pay them a living wage. Most of you guys commenting on this engage housemaid and pay him/her 5000 naira or less a month and while subjecting him or her to inhuman treatment. Dangote has tried being the second employer of labour after the federal goverment and the only solution to this problem is for our goverment to live up to their responsibilities and make good jobs abound to people. if people have choices of no human rights organisation will preach to dangote to treat his staff well if he is losing large percentage of his staff to other employers on a monthly basis. Let us leave dangote and others alone and tackle the problem from the root-Bad governance

DANGOTE AND CASUALISTION OF WORKERS.

The story is pitiable everywhere. In Julius Berger, Dantata and Soewe, Setraco,Ccecc ,Cgc,Scc, Chevron,Shell, CBN,Nnpc and a host of others, the casualisation of workers is their trade in stock. With this trend you find that the Nigerian government is a culpable accomplice in it. The government kept shouting of unemployment and job creation when it is the biggest cause of unemployment. If you sieve all those so called EXPATRIATES who perform clerical and all other jobs that Nigerians can do away from these organizations, you get thousands of placement for Nigerians. Can you imagine AN EXPATRIATE as a personnel officer or admin manager or an account officer? Until we get a leader that is patriotic and has demonstrable credentials for sincerity and honesty we will continue to live with this crisis.

As a former staff of Dangote

As a former staff of Dangote cement works Limited, these allegations are understatement to the actual situation in all Dangote factories in Nigeria. What more will you say when Dangote is employing Indian expatriate secretary, Labours etc? What else will you say when innocent Nigerian graduates recruited as trainee engineers from their schools were suddenly sacked for no reason and compensation by the Indian fools employed to do DanGoats bidding? Shame on DanGOAT and shame on NLC.

Expose to save Nigeria

I have been wondering when will the law catch up with the Dangote's. They are not the largest employer of labour because they are not employing Nigerian as the case look like. Aliko is destroying Nigerian youths by employing Indians to do the jobs Nigerians can conveniently do better. Can you imagine why Dangote will employ as per below:
An Indian (Ephraim K) to be taking records of AGO and LPFO loading.
An Indian (Ramesh C) to be taking records of the Gypsum trucks loaded.
An Indian (Pabby) to be in charge of its Group Human resources.
The list is endless,I know very well that Dangote has about 4,500 Indians working for him to the detriment of over 4,500 Nigerian youths.
Dangote wanted to try this same thing in Ghana and he was ask to shut down its cement plant if he cannot find and employ Ghanians, he had no option and he obliged as the immigration officials sent back 300 Indians at the port of entry in Accra. Let us wake up in Nigeria.

Good Expose

I have been wondering when will the law catch up with the Dangote's. They are not the largest employer of labour because they are not employing Nigerian as the case look like. Aliko is destroying Nigerian youths by employing Indians to do the jobs Nigerians can conveniently do better. Can you imagine why Dangote will employ as per below:
An Indian (Ephraim K) to be taking records of AGO and LPFO loading.
An Indian (Ramesh C) to be taking records of the Gypsum trucks loaded.
An Indian (Pabby) to be in charge of its Group Human resources.
The list is endless,I know very well that Dangote has about 4,500 Indians working for him to the detriment of over 4,500 Nigerian youths.
Dangote wanted to try this same thing in Ghana and he was ask to shut down its cement plant if he cannot find and employ Ghanians, he had no option and he obliged as the immigration officials sent back 300 Indians at the port of entry in Accra. Let us wake up in Nigeria.

very unfortunate

very unfortunate for a business tycoon like Dangote,to comfortably enslave his country men with no pity,not dangote alone, who ever is opportune to be an employer of labor, should know that any maltreatment you give your fellow man simply he work for you to earn a living,will definitely attract a curse,so i advice every employer of labor to treat individual with dignity.also govt to be proactive in checkmating the activities of industries and other labor firm.

Please no slave labor .. Nigerians deserve better.

Sometimes I wonder what is wrong with people, especially those who have benefitted abundantly from favoritism in the Nigerian economy to turn around to enslave fellow Nigrians in the name of meaningful employment that is actually slave labor in disguise. Shame on you Dangote if the elegation is true. How much more money do you have to make out of the misery of others. I still say that is wrong to give only one person the sole right for importation of essential commoduties in a country of over 140 million people. Only in Naiija can you find such nonesense. Little wonder that he treats his employees as slaves...He has enslaved other bussiness minded people when he received such illegal Importation preferences in the past. And if you are waiting for the government to tell him that he cannot treat people that way.... what are the chances that it will happen in our lifetime or the slaves lifetime ?(pardon the pun).

SLAVE LABOUR AT DANGOTE'S

As an insider for along time I can assure you this is not peculiar with Sav Sugar Co alone. That's the style from Kano, to Oba Akran,to Ikorodu factory etc. But guess who the TOOLS are: THE NIGERIAN AND INDIAN EXECUTIVES he pampers handsomely to do the bidding!

All the same nigerians

What bafles me with many nigerians is they like making much noise if they are not favoured.this guy(dangote) is the second largest employer of labour after FGN,So he have done much good than harm to the pple of this country.and almost all the business pple,companies be them indegineous or foreign in this country employed casual labourers or contract staffs.so dangote savannah sugar should not be an exception,i can fully remember he bought that company as a scrapped but he resuscitate it and now functional,so kudo's for that.earning him the richest man in africa is a product of hardwork and determination.

HAVE YOU CARED TO FIND OUT

HAVE YOU CARED TO FIND OUT THE TRUE SITUATION OF THINGS IN THE COMPANY BEFORE MAKING THIS PUBLICATIONS?

We dont want modern slavery...

The 80% of casual staff in this company, suppose to be the total percent of the permanent staff ...they should be permanent and be paid good money...

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