By Mohamed Juma Jalloh
From time immemorial, Sierra Leoneans working in the manufacturing sector are subjected to inhumane working conditions by their employers.
The maltreatment of locals can be traced back to the colonial exploitation of the country`s minerals wealth. This created a bourgeois and proletariat culture that continue to permeate the working environment till today.
Hardly a day passes by without the report of a fatal labour accident involving a Sierra Leonean working in a foreign manufacturing company. In most instances, these accidents occur in the precincts of companies that engage in the manufacturing of liquor, cement, and other rubber products.
Apart from the negative occurrences at work, many companies operate under hazardous working conditions with inadequate or no safety standards for workers.
Popular brands such as G.Shankerdas and Sons, Leocem, and Dangote Cement have taken majority of the bashings from members of the public for these excesses.
The present state of affairs has left many Sierra Leoneans perplexed as to whether there are legal guarantees in the statute books that seek to protect the labour rights of Sierra Leoneans.
Sylvester Patrick Sam Moribah, a worker now deceased who was attached at Shankerdas and Sons limited, Kissy Freetown was one of those victims who met his death while repairing a water tank on behalf of the Shankandas and Sons quite recently at Marjay Town, West of Freetown.
He sustained major burns due to gas explosion from the equipment he was using to repair the tank.
Mr Moribah was unable to resist the severity of the burns and was later pronounced dead at the main referral Connaught Hospital in Freetown on 23rd December 2019.
Many other Sierra Leoneans have lost their lives while operating production machines for various manufacturing companies.
Shankerdas is one of the oldest foreign companies in Sierra Leone. It began operations in 1922 and it should not be oblivious of maintaining safety standards for its staff (including casual workers).
If Shankerdas was a company that adheres to work place safety regulations, swift internal investigations should have been conducted with the aim to ascertain what went wrong and to further prevent similar occurrences in the future.
In reality, most of these companies are only concerned about making profits. They are notorious in violating labour laws and corrupting government and law enforcement officials who normally go out to implement the laws.
According to Article 20 of the Wages and Industrial Act (No 18 of 1971), workers whose nature of work involves a risk of personal safety or potential health hazard shall at regular intervals or at all times be provided with the necessary protective clothing and/or safety devices such as rubber suits, aprons, boots, masks, googles, cutlasses, torchlights or any other appropriate devices as the nature of work may require.
These legal provisions, aimed at providing workplace safety, are violated at will by another rightful suspect called LEOCEM. Its negligence of workplace safety standards also led to the death of one casual worker called Karrah Savage.
According to the autopsy, the young Sierra Leonean died of Encephalopathy due to an immuno compromised status having been exposed to infectious working conditions at the cement factory.
Sources close to the company have maintained that the lack of the aforesaid protective gears for workers has resulted to several of them getting infected with chemicals they inhaled during working hours.
This ugly situation has worried the casual workers because they cannot continue to render their services under such unhygienic, appalling, and dehumanizing situation without no risk benefits.
Article 9(h) that deals with medical facilities under the same Labour law states that, “Workers who are engaged in work in which there is the possibility of inhaling dust and similar particles, shall be given preventive treatment by the employer`s medical doctor.”
LEOCEM’s casual workers have alleged that such medical facilities are not forthcoming despite the fact that they continuously inhale dust during production and uploading and offloading of various cement products.
The tendency of getting a job in the country, where unemployment is massive among young people, is extremely difficult. There are few investors in the country`s manufacturing sector, thereby leaving the Government of Sierra Leone the biggest employer.
Many unemployed youths go all out to work in foreign companies as casual workers to make ends meet, irrespective of the adverse conditions they would have to endure.
The evidence is glaring for everyone to see. In broad day light, casual workers can be seen uploading Dangote and Leocem products bound for the provinces with no gloves and masks. Where enforcement is lacking, business predators can have the freedom to exploit the dignity and violate the human rights of Sierra Leoneans. Usually when things go bad, these contending issues receives the attention of the Ministry of Labour and the Labour Commission. Government finds it extremely difficult in compelling the companies to paying benefits or compensation to workers because there are no employment letters that stipulate the contractual agreement between the employer and the employee.
The entreaty by the Ministry and Commission sometimes end up in deadlock because there is no legal contractual binding agreement between both parties.
Companies take advantage of the desperation of workers in finding daily sustenance and they are usually offered a pittance salary far below the minimum wage. In actual fact, these companies are in gross violation of the NASSIT Act of 2001.
The coverage of the NASSIT Act encompasses all workers, whether permanent, temporary, seasonal, casual, probational or provisional who not over 55 years old. Even domestic service in private homes is covered by the NASSIT Act, which means work normally performed as an essential part of household duties. These include baby- sitters, drivers of family cars, cooks, gardeners, maids, watchmen etc.
According to the law, the coverage is extensive and overarching but most foreign companies’ remains unaccountable to the laws. These companies harbour an unexamined belief that they are indispensable to the government as a result of the taxes they pay to the state. They are also carried away by the publicity stunt of Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects implemented in communities which is sometimes used to cow government officials in their favour.
The Sierra Leone Labour Congress (SLLC), the workers union body that has the mandate of collective bargaining power for and on behalf of workers is powerless. Advocating for better conditions of service and improve salaries remain a challenge to the SLLC.
Leaders of the Congress are known to be corrupted and sometimes co-opted into the governance structure when they are too vocal against the government.
When appointed as the Minister of Labour and Social Security, a position he had formerly occupied under the government of late president Tejan Kabbah, Alpha Timbo promised to eliminate the bottle necks that has left Sierra Leoneans at the detriment of foreign companies. But as the minister remains suspended under allegations of the missing Chinese rice saga pending investigations, Sierra Leoneans continue to bear the brunt in the hands of nefarious foreign companies.
On a larger scale, residents in the Wellington community have accused the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (SLBL) of disposing dangerous waste in the neighborhood leaving trails of stinking odour hanging in the air.
The waste, which is discharge on a running stream, posses potential health risks to the community. Residents have complained that most bore holes and gullies that enhance their water livelihoods are in close proximity to the water way, which stands the risk of contamination.
The community people are also dissatisfied regarding the numerous CSR projects implemented in various communities, while leaving their area of operations in wellington in dire need of social services.
Getting a company as enormous as SLBL abide by the health and environmental laws of the country, where the government of Sierra Leone has shares remains extremely difficult. Therefore, residents around PMB at Wellington remain susceptible to the hazardous chemicals disposed in the community. If the operations of the Bennimix Company were halted for lack of adherence to the environmental laws, why not apply the same to the SLBL to enforce compliance?