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More than two months after over 3, 000 staff of Dangote Cement, the largest cement production company in Africa, lost their job in an abrupt layoff, quite a lot of them are yet to get any form of compensation (severance, unemployment benefits, or other kinds of adequate recompense they may be entitled to), AllNews has credibly gathered.
It would be recalled that Dangote Cement Plc had around mid-June 2020 discarded 10% of staff of Dangote Group, a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate, founded by Aliko Dangote, Africa's undisputed richest man who boasts of a net-worth of 8.3 billion US Dollars.
The workers were sacked from both the Obajana (Kogi state) - the largest in Africa with 13.25Mta of capacity across four lines - and Ibese (Ogun state) plants.
To date, the fired employees' benefits have not been paid, AllNews reliably learnt.
"Our benefits haven't been paid since," a top source; one of the affected erstwhile workers at Obajana Cement Plant who spoke to AllNews on the condition of anonymity said.
"Though some have gotten, majority has not been paid.
"The Account Unit has been promising week in, week out."
Another ex-worker who used to be based at Ibese, also hit by the mass dismissal, lamented to AllNews that many are still confronted with non-payment of entitlements.
"Yes it is true that some retrenched staff of Dangote Cement Plant, Ibese, are yet to be paid their benefits having sacked them in downsizing exercise in June.
"Although, I don't have the figure, but I can tell you that we are many that they are owing," the Nigerian youth who doesn't want to be named disclosed.
Dangote's Letter of termination of appointment
In a letter of termination dated June 17, 2020, signed by Adeniyi Azeez, Head of Human Resources and Administration, sacked staff were told that the process of the payment will be communicated, with no specific date indicated.
"Our payroll is currently working out your final financial entitlements and this would be communicated to you during the off boarding process," the letter read.
Earlier this year, prior to the mass sack in June, Dangote Cement Plc in May announced that the Group revenue went up 3.8% to N249.2 Billion; Profit before tax rose 11.5% to N88.1 Billion; Nigerian volumes increased 0.7% at 4.0Mt, +5% when considering domestic sales only; record high Nigerian quarterly revenue at N179.3 Billion, soared 5.6%, among other highlights of its three-month unaudited results.
Post the termination of appointments, July to be precise, the revenue of Dangote Cement Plc increased by 2% from N467.7 in H1 (first half of the year) 2019 to N476.9B in H1 2020 driven by better average net prices realised in Nigeria and Pan Africa as well as increased volumes in Pan Africa. Net revenue per tonne in Nigeria amounted to N44,855 in H1 2020 as compared to N43,224 in H1 2019 representing an increase of 3.8%.
In fact, despite the impact of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the company became stronger, a substance acknowledged by Michel Puchercos, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (GMD/CEO) at Dangote Cement Plc (formerly known as Obajana Cement Plc).
“I am humbled by the fact that we continue to be in a strong position despite the economic downturn that the world is facing due to COVID-19," Puchercos had said at the time while reacting to the unaudited results for the six-month ended 30th June 2020.
"Although April was greatly impacted by lockdowns and restrictions across our operations, we experienced a strong quarter.
"We achieved a record high volume and EBITDA margin in Pan-Africa of 4.7Mt and 21.7%, respectively. Group EBITDA was up slightly despite the impact of COVID-19."
An e-mail enquiry on Saturday by AllNews about why benefits of the ex-workers have not been paid sent to Anthony Chiejina, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Dangote Group was not responded to as at the time of publishing this report.
According to a leading global platform for legal reference, ICLG.com, the general position is that Nigerian employers are entitled to terminate a contract of employment at any time without stating the reason or cause for doing so, provided that the appropriate notice of termination is given to the employee, or the employee is paid a salary in lieu of such notice.
The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) has, however, indicated that the best practice, in accordance with international standards, is that an employer must state the reason(s) for terminating an employee's contract.
Where an employee is dismissed for reasons relating solely to the individual employee, the employee's entitlement to compensation is subject to the provisions of his/her contract of employment.
Typically, an employer is entitled to receive any accrued contractual payments such as salary in lieu of contractual notice (if the employer elects not to give the contractual notice), accrued salaries until the effective termination date and such other payments that may be due to the employee, under the terms of his/her employment contract.
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