When expatriates convert workplaces to permanent disabilities zones

From The Nation
By allcitynews.ng

•Victims lose hand, leg, another got burnt

•Survivors call on Lagos govt, labour unions for intervention
•They deserve more than they got -Insurance expert

•Their claims are incorrect -Company AGM

The joy of having a legitimate means of livelihood has turned sour for many workers of Atlantic Shrimpers Limited, an expatriate fishing company based in Apapa, Lagos.

Apart from this, many expatriate companies including some Nigerian factories owners are making their workplaces permanent disabilities zones for their workers following their refusal to have protective equipment in place.

Some of the workers who suffered permanent disability in the course of carrying out their official duties allegedly got pittance as compensation.

Aside from being rendered deformed, the victims who alleged brazen exploitation and dehumanisation of workers, are calling on the Lagos State Government, labour unions and human rights activists to look into their plight.

Tsono Reuben, an indigene of Badagry area of Lagos State, was full of hope of safely returning home to his beautiful family when he left home early 2019 to travel with his colleagues to Ondo State for an official assignment.

The journey from Lagos to Ondo State on the sea was an unusually smooth and enjoyable ride for Rueben except that a boisterous wind kept barging at his ears as if passing critical information.

“What a feeling I am having today,” he wondered as the ship berthed at their destination.

Unknown to Reuben, the discomforting wind was only an ominous sign.

He said: “When we got to the area where we wanted to work, we tied the net and the captain came to set the water board.

“As we were doing all that, the people on the other side left the wire and it held me. I struggled with the wire for a long time. At the end of the day, I found that the wire had cut my leg and rendered me permanently disabled.

“The incident occurred in Ondo State around 8 pm. Immediately the incident happened, we turned back to return to Lagos. We got to Apapa between 5 and 6 am. We used to go as far as Calabar, Cameroon and Malabo borders.”

Reuben returned to Lagos writhing in pain. The concern about how his family would feel or cope compounded his discomforts.

“I never bargained for this. God why me, why me?” he screamed as a big bang reverberated in his brain and intensified his pains.

On getting to Lagos, Reuben said he was given an injection to extenuate the pains. He was thereafter taken to a hospital where he spent some time.

“The company paid the bills. The hospital gave me an artificial limb but it was causing pains for me.

“I called and explained my predicament to them but they didn’t care. I called the doctor but nothing came out of it.

“I use crutches now as you can see because the local artificial limb they gave me was injuring my leg.”

While recuperating at home, Reuben shockingly had his salary stopped. The company had paid the salary for some months before stopping it.  “Could this be a mistake?” he asked rhetorically.

“They were paying me N15, 000 then. When they stopped my salary, I called and they asked me to come to the jetty.  I didn’t have money to go. I had to beg for money from anybody I could reach to get money to go there.

“When I got there, they gave me N195,000 as pay off.  They paid with a cheque.

“Later, I went to IBTC at Agbara to collect my pension. My pension was N600,000 altogether but IBTC paid me N154, 000.  Now they pay me N3,900 monthly. What can that do in the life of a family man with four grown up children?”

Not satisfied with what he was paid, Reuben said: “I continued confronting the company about my welfare. It wasn’t a small matter, my brother.

“At one point, they said I should go to Ebute Metta, go to Apapa and all that. I kept moving to all those places with my damaged leg to sort out my insurance compensation.

“The insurance company later allayed my worries. They assured me that I would reap the fruits of my labour.  But subsequently, I didn’t hear from them again. Later they said I should meet my company.”

The company, Reuben said, “later gave me N600, 000. They said that was what the insurance company asked them to pay me.  They wanted to give me cash but I refused. I told them to pay it into my Access Bank account.

“I was employed in Apapa and we started the Badagry area.”

With the present condition he has found himself, Reuben said: “Life has become extremely hard for my family. To say that we are suffering is an understatement.

“The N600, 000 they gave me was used to settle outstanding debts. I cannot do any work again because I can’t move around anymore like I used to do when I wasn’t physically challenged.

“To survive, I started a football viewing centre business and PoS, but the PoS is giving me problems. I want to appeal to the state government, labour unions and human rights activists to intervene in my case.

“I am an indigene of Lagos State. The government must not open its eyes and watch one of its own humiliated and dehumanised on his own soil.”

After the ugly incident that befell Reuben, Tony, a serving staff member of the company also had his hand cut off in the line of duty.

“It was one of their machines that we used to work that cut my hand. They took me to the hospital after I sustained the injury.”

Apart from him, Tony said, “there is one guy whose palm was cut off in the process of working. There is another one that broke his hand. It is three irons that they used to support the hand.

“Another worker had his hand broken but because nothing was done to sustain the hand, it became shortened. It is the engines that are cutting our hands. All the equipment we use is made of iron and they are very dangerous.” The embittered Tony added: “There were two other guys that they have sacked.  A total of four people have their hands supported with iron.

“One of the guys has died. He died in a motorcycle accident. If they had compensated him after sustaining the injury, he would have started a business and stopped working.”

After he was discharged from the hospital, Tony said the company paid him N600,000 as insurance compensation.

He said: “An insurance person I spoke with said the money was small compared to the magnitude of the injury that I sustained. When I challenged them about what they paid me, they said it was what the government specified that they paid.

“I have not been given my pension because I am still working there. I guess they are doing all that to us because we have nobody to fight for us. The government of Lagos State and concerned Nigerians should look into this.”

To calm his frayed nerves, Tony said the company later asked him to bring two of his children for immediate employment.

He said: “Instead of compensating me very well after I sustained the injury, they tricked me by asking me to bring two of my children to work in the organisation. They didn’t tell me that bringing my children to work in the company was part of my compensation. Their lawyer even told me that I didn’t have to complain since they had employed my children. They later sacked my children.

“They sacked one because he refused to go to work on a Saturday. I put the second one in the engineering section. He had issues with them there and was asked to go. Instead of them to resolve the matter, they sacked him.

“The treatment that they are giving me is inappropriate for a disabled person.”

For Salau Olawale Sodiq, another serving worker in the company, it was a narrow escape from death.  He was caught in a fire outbreak working in the ship and made efforts to put out the inferno with a fire extinguisher but his efforts were unsuccessful.  He’s yet to go back to work after the incident.

His words: “The fire incident happened in the engine room. I was busy working without knowing that the place had caught fire.

“I quickly carried the fire extinguisher to put out the fire but before I knew it, the liquid content in the fire extinguisher was exhausted.

“When I saw that the only solution was to go out of the danger, I ran through it. If I had remained there, I would have been trapped.”

After the incident, Sodiq said, “I was taken to a nearby hospital there in Delta State. I spent five days in the hospital before the company later brought an ambulance to bring me to Lagos. I was taken to the company’s hospital.

“The incident happened on April 27 (2022).  I am partially okay now.  The company took care of the hospital bill and has been paying my salary of N32,000.

“The money isn’t paying my bills but they are still paying me. My hand, my back and my leg were affected by the fire.”

While on hospital bed in Delta State, Sodiq said, “the insurance company came and promised to get back to me. Nothing has come from them since then.

“The insurance company is supposed to pay me handsomely but I haven’t seen anything till now. When I called somebody in the company, they said they were still processing my compensation. How long will it take them to do that?

“It was by God’s grace that I survived the fire incident. Everybody that sees me keeps saying that God has a mission for me and that was why he saved me.

“If I get a lump sum of money, I will not want to go back to the company. The stress alone is something else.”

He has only been living on the paltry sum of N32,000 the company still pays him as salary.

Many people work for years without salary – Victims

Some of the victims were indignant about the working conditions in the company, describing the treatment of blacks as cruel.

Sodiq said: “Some workers spend two years in the maintenance section without getting any salary. There in the company you will see elderly men who have worked there for two to three years without salary.  When I was doing IT in the company my salary was just N3,000 in a month.” Recalling his experience, Reuben said: “When I joined the company, I worked in the maintenance section for one good year without salary. You have no salary as a casual worker. That is what they do. They have money. They have over 70 vessels.”

Recalling his early days with the company, he said: “I worked in the engineering department when I newly joined the company. I spent six years doing that.

“In the course of doing that, sea pirates started disturbing us on the sea. They were killing and injuring us. When they killed one captain the whole fishing company halted operations. In the whole of Lagos State, no fishing company worked.

“The development made all of us to go back home. Along the line, they asked all engineers to come back to take care of the vessels. I found that difficult and subsequently resigned.

“I later went back to work there.  I was asked to stay ashore but I said no because I am a floating engineer and I was supposed to be on the sea. I was later taken to the operations department before I started going to work on the sea. It was while working on the sea that I had the injury.”

Decrying the attitude of the company to workers, Tony said: “If a worker sustains injury, instead of them to compensate him, they would not.  It is only what is in their mind that they will be telling you. They will query and suspend workers.

“I received the highest number of suspensions with my injury.  There was a time I was suspended for three months without salary.  I was earning N12,000 before I sustained the injury but now I am earning N50,000.”

Victims deserve more than they got – Insurance expert

An insurance expert, Demola Basorun, in a chat with our correspondent said the compensations given to the victims were inadequate. He noted that the actions of the company showed they didn’t take insurance cover for the workers.

“There are two insurance policies that the company was supposed to have for them. They are group and employee liability.

“According to the Pension Reform Act, the group flight is supposed to be three times your annual emoluments. Assuming your annual emolument is N1 million, with the group flight your employer is supposed to take for you, it is supposed to be N3 million.  The same thing goes for employee liability.

“The first thing we want to know is does the company actually have employee liability insurance? If they don’t, it is a thing they can sue the company for.

“The N600,000 they are giving them shows they never took insurance cover for them. Even if their salaries are poor, they can sue the company to get more compensation.

“Permanent disability is like loss of employment or loss of life.  If they don’t have money to get a lawyer, they can go to the Office of Public Defender or Ministry of Justice in Alausa, Lagos for assistance.”

Victims’ claims incorrect – Company

The company, in a brief response to our correspondent’s call, said the victims’ claims were incorrect.

When our correspondent put a call to one of the Indian owners, Raja and told him the purpose for calling, he said:  “One minute, hold on.”

Within a space of time, a Nigerian who identified himself as the AGM stepped in and demanded what our correspondent wanted.

After telling him the claims of the victims, he said: “That is not correct.  I am sorry I cannot continue with this discussion on the phone. I am sorry.  If you want an interview, you can come to the office.  I cannot discuss this on the phone. I am sorry.”

Subsequent efforts to get the reaction of the company were unsuccessful as Raja refused to  comment or  give his mobile phone to the AGM to comment as he had earlier done.

“You can call him now. You can get his number in the manner you got mine,” he said when our correspondent said he doesn’t  have the AGM’s contact.

Upon our correspondent’s insistence, Raja said: “let me call his number for you.”

He ended the call thereafter.

When our correspondent called back, a lady who answered the call said: “He is in a meeting now, may be you call back later.

When asked if she could give the AGM  the phone to speak, she said “they have been in a meeting since 2 o’clock.”

When our correspondent informed her that he spoke with Raja a few minutes earlier, she said : “They are in a meeting.”

Raja was yet to respond to a text message sent to him thereafter requesting for the AGM’s number or the company’s reaction.

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