ABIA: ‘We Have Been Turned To Slaves’ -Golden Guinea Breweries Workers Protest In Umuahia
Staff of Golden Guinea Breweries PLC in Umuahia, Abia State on Tuesday, staged a protest, lamenting lack of proper documentation and non-payment of salaries (stipends).
According to the protesters, the management Golden Guinea Breweries have turned them into slaves as most of them have worked for years without appointment letter, proper documentation, among others, to confirm them as staff of the company.
“We have been demanding for our stipends but they kept on giving us date that was never realizable.
“So many of our workers are dying because of hunger. We are here to demonstrate our grievances against the management we have here, they have turned the workers we have here to slaves. We are working like elephant and eating like ant” one of the protesters lamented.
Another said; “As it stands now we don’t have any documentation with the company that shows that we are staff members of Golden Guinea Breweries PLC.”
The aggrieved staff alleged that some of those who got appointment letter in August 2019, had their appointment withdrawn with the assurance that a new letter would be issued to them which has not been done.
“some of us have been here for the past four years. They gave us appointment letter in August 2019, they later withdrew that appointment letter and told us they will give us another one, up till now they haven’t. They have been owning us stipends not salary. They have sacked so many of us and they told us that we can’t do anything. We don’t call it salary because we haven’t been properly documented as a staff.
“Even the stipends they were paying, they told us that they are going to open a pension trust fund for us. We told them this is not the way they do it. Pension are being withdrawn from salaries, not from stipends but they refused, and insisted that they should and they did it. Up till now we haven’t received any alert from pension board.”
At the time of the protest, the entrance gate of the Golden Guinea Breweries was under lock and key and efforts made to speak to the management staff proved futile.
