SETRACO workers protest continued casualization in Delta

Workers, numbering over 300 took to the street of Tuomo in Burutu local government area of Delta State to protest what they described as “continued casualization” by a construction giant, SETRACO Nigeria Limited, Our Bomadi Correspondent reports.

The workers, whose action grounded operations at the company site said they are not certain if the company is ready to make them permanent staff after working for the mandatory 3- month probation period to meet the company’s employment policy.

The angry workers who are indigenes of Tuomo community took to the street to register their grievances in a peaceful protest that lasted few hours.

 Our Correspondent reports that it took the intervention of mobile policemen attached to the company’s yard in Bomadi to douse the tension of the visibly furious workers from turning the peaceful protest into violence.

The protesting workers reportedly blocked the company’s access to its work site.

Speaking to Fresh Angle on condition of anonymity, one of the aggrieved staff of the company revealed that it is part of the company’s policy to regularize the employment status of any staff that is engaged by the company and has worked for the 3 months probation period with clean record.

In his words, “most of us here have worked for over a year without becoming a permanent staff of the company in sight. This has denied us some rights and entitlements, which others benefit as permanent staff of the company. We have made several unsuccessful efforts through the workers union to address the anomaly; hence we have come out today to register our frustrations. Our demand is clear; we want the company to implement its policy on employment. This is a clear violation of labour laws of the country and infringement on our rights and privileges”.

In a swift reaction, a top management staff of the company who do not want his name in print described the workers claim as untrue; stressing that it is part of the company’s policy to permanent any staff engaged after the 3 months probation period so long as due process is followed. “The company has a policy to permanent any staff engaged after 3 months on its staff row. The company’s branch here in Bomadi can only communicate our corporate headquarters for documentation and confirmation of any staff whose name is forwarded after such staff satisfies the company’s work culture”, he maintained.

He therefore charged all SETRACO staff to always resort to dialogue in seeking redress, even as he called on them to desist from acts capable of tarnishing the image of the company

This is coming two months after some workers of SETRACO staged similar protest against the company’s labour policy.

It would be recalled that a similar protest stalled the activities of the company when workers took to the street to express the employment policy of the company at Gbaregolor where the company has one of its operational base.

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