The workers of United Cement Company have protested against the alleged excesses, high handedness and victimisation by some senior management team of the firm.
The workers, under the aegis of the National Union of Chemical Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees, in a petition to the managing director of the company, alleged that some of them had faced various types of discrimination, while some had their appointments terminated as a result of nepotism by some highly placed officials in the human resource department.
The petition, which was signed by the NUCFRLANMPE branch chairman, Blessed Effiom, and Secretary, Peter Ayuk, was made available to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.
The union accused some management officials of UNICEM of embarking on ethnic cleansing in the organisation.
It accused the human resource department of introducing lopsided hay grading, which it claimed, was degrading and discouraged productivity among workers, adding that it tended to bring low esteem and violated the basic principles of labour law and infringed on Section 34 (A-C) of the 1999 Constitution.
“There is a high degree of conflict of interest exhibited by the HR department as a situation where sensitive positions are marred by people from one favoured ethnic group at the expense of other more qualified and experienced workers is detrimental, discriminatory and injurious to the growth and productivity of the company,” the union alleged.
When contacted, the Human Resource Director, UNICEM, Mr. Peter Okunkule, said it was not part of his job to talk to the press on the matter.
The National Vice Chairman, NUCFRLANMPE, expressed surprise that the petition was leaked to the press “when efforts were on to settle the problem.”