CDWR Demands End to Exploitation of Lagos State Sweepers
The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) condemns the response from the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) concerning the inhumane treatment and exploitation of Lagos State sweepers. Rather than addressing the grave issues raised, LAWMA’s response was a futile attempt to save face, revealing its complicity in the unjust and exploitative system it oversees in connivance with contractors under its supervision. We strongly condemn the illegal and exploitative practices employed by LAWMA and its contractors in engaging sweepers under degrading and substandard working conditions.
A recent viral video brought to public attention the harrowing realities faced by the Lagos State sweepers. In the video, a female sweeper courageously spoke out about the pain, suffering, and indignities inflicted upon her and thousands of sweeper colleagues by the Lagos State government and its contractors. Among the shocking revelations were the imposition of slave wages that fall far below the legally stipulated minimum wage of N80,000, the requirement for sweepers to purchase brooms and other necessary work tools using their meager salaries, and the absence of safety gear, thereby exposing sweepers to dangerous working conditions while sweeping highways, roads, and bridges.
This distressing situation is yet another revelation to the failures of privatization, which serves as a mechanism for government cronies and corrupt officials to siphon public funds while subjecting hardworking individuals to inhumane treatment. In line with the fraudulent contract system, privileged individuals within the corridors of power are given contract to employ sweepers and in turn the contract pay sweepers a fraction of the salary they are entitled to, hereby allow the contractors to earn fat profit. In this case, Lagos State Government through LAWMA may pay the contractors N80,000 or more for each sweeper but sweepers gets about N40,000 or less. So, the contractors pockets about N40,000 for each sweepers monthly and a whopping N480 million annually if the sweepers are 10,000.
The Lagos State government, under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), continues to demonstrate blatant disregard for workers’ rights. Instead of ensuring decent wages and working conditions for workers who keep the state clean, the government promotes exploitative policies that benefit profiteers and corrupt politicians at their expense. However, the plight of Lagos State sweepers is not an isolated case but a reflection of the broader injustice experienced by many workers across both public and private sectors not only in Lagos but also nationally.
CDWR hereby calls on the Lagos State government to immediately ensure that all sweepers receive the minimum wage as stipulated by law and be subjected to the upgraded minimum wage structure. Sweepers should be given permanent and regularized employment under LAWMA, as many have worked for over six years as contract staff. All parasitic contractor arrangements under LAWMA must be discontinued, and contractors responsible for violating workers’ rights must be held accountable and prosecuted for gross misconduct.
We also call the two labour centres – the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) – to take decisive actions to support the struggle and demands of the sweepers. These should include solidarity protests and the demand for an immediate recognition of the rights of the sweepers to form or join a union or association of their choice to enable them to collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.
The CDWR stands firmly in support of the Lagos State sweepers and all workers fighting for decent pays and conditions, dignity of labour, fair treatment, and economic justice. We urge the Lagos State government to end its complicity in labour exploitation and take immediate steps to rectify these injustices.
Rufus Olusesan
National Chairperson
Chinedu Bosah
National Publicity Secretary
CDWR email: [email protected]