DANGOTE TRUCK OFFICERS CONTINUE STRUGGLE WITH DANGOTE CEMENT PLC

Dangote Cement Plc, employed 850 Truck Officers in 2016 with paltry salary of N60,000 monthly wage, and N90,000 performance bonus while they would own the truck after each Officer’s truck attained 400,000 mileage, as agreement attached to their employment. Only N60,000 monthly wage was paid while other relevant parts of the agreement/contract were never fulfilled. Dangote Cement Plc, one of the companies owned by the richest man in Africa also declares fabulous annual profit of at least N350 billion while most of his workers are poorly paid.

Barely eight months to the programme, Dangote management sacked all the workers on February 4, 2017 under armed security watch. After mass protest to the Lagos State House of Assembly and the Dangote Group Office at Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos, 513 Truck Officers sued Dangote Cement at the National Industrial Court (NIC), Lagos. The Truck officers are demanding their entitlements and compensation.

The matter has spent three years in court due to the cumbersome, time wasting and expensive Nigeria judicial system; the matter has been characterized by one adjournment or the other. The matter that was scheduled to come up on February 17, 2020 for final written address has been postponed and a new date is yet to be communicated to the lawyers. The CDWR has played decisive roles in the struggle so far.