Workers of Sumal Foods Limited, Ibadan, under their umbrella union, the National Union of Foods, Beverages, and Tobacco Employee (NUFBTE), have rubbished descriptions that Sumal is a slave camp for them.

Chairman, NUFBTE, Sumal branch, Mr Sunday Oladele, stated this while addressing journalists on the recent workers’ protest and working conditions at Sumal Foods Limited, Ibadan.

Speaking, Oladele said the Sumal management had been up and doing regarding workers’ welfare, as he said the least paid outsourced worker in the company is paid N68,900 monthly while the least paid permanent staff gets N70,500 monthly.

Aside from salary payment, Oladele said workers also had access to monthly Sumal products, sampling, improved medical facilities, operated three shifts of eight hours with a 30-minute break in between shifts, meal subsidies, bonuses for festivities reviewed every two years, while there was adherence to labour laws.

He added that the management had also agreed to concessions that included approval of the payment of N10,000 flat to permanent staff and N500 daily as palliative to contract staff, as well as approval given for the commencement by July 2024 of the payment of the 14 per cent balance of the 2023 NJIC agreement that was supposed to be due by December 2024.

Oladele said the union was particularly pained at the loss of a permanent staff member of Sumal, Mr Olabode Olaniyan, to the protest over the claim that the federal government had paid Sumal Foods money for palliatives for workers, which it confirmed to be false.

Oladele said, “We are here to tell the truth so that people out there will know what operates in Sumal. Some say that we are in a slave camp.

“We run three shifts of eight hours, whereby the morning shift resumes by 6 am and closes by 2 pm; the afternoon shift resumes by 2 pm and closes by 9 pm; the night shift resumes by 9 pm and closes at 6 am and everybody is entitled to their 30-minute break, which is in line with the rules and regulations of the federal government of Nigeria.

“Sumal management is not doing things on its own. We, as a union, ensure the management follow normal protocol.

“The least paid outsourced worker gets N68,900 as salary per month. The least paid permanent staff worker’s salary is N70,500.

“Once you are a permanent staff in Sumal, you get N70,500 monthly after all the deductions for the pension scheme, cooperative, union levy, and tax.

“This is aside from the monthly products, sampling given to all workers, and improved medical facilities like the company clinic and referral facilities up to the University College Hospital (UCH) for critical situations.

“The union will continue to engage the management to ensure that the welfare of our workers is given priority.

“We are not saying Sumal is the best in the whole universe; at the same time, Sumal is not the worst in the universe. The little Sumal can do for its workers, it does.

“Apart from negotiation at the national union, at the branch level, we try to improve our meal subsidy, monthly sampling, Christmas bonus, and medical, which is reviewed every two years.

“This is apart from the NJIC negotiation with the National Union of Foods, Beverages, and Tobacco Employees.

“Whoever wants to confirm should come to verify at Sumal whether people are being enslaved and whether all the monies mentioned are being paid to workers so that the whole of Nigeria will know that at Sumal, both management and union are trying their own best, and we cannot allow anybody to treat our workers anyhow.

“We are law-abiding, there is law guiding us; we are not just an anyhow union. The National Union of Foods, Beverages and Tobacco Employee is a registered union and affiliated to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

“What pained us the most is that we lost a soul. For the damages, we can repair; but for the loss of lives, it is irreparable, and we sympathise with the management of the deceased.

“We are ready to ensure that the management does the necessary things concerning the man who lost his life in the saga.”