Ex-employees of BUA picket company over entitlements

...We gave our ex-employees full payment after company was sold- BUA

By Bartholomew Madukwe

Former employees of  Bua International Limited yesterday picket the company, claiming that they were denied their rightful due out of the sale of its subsidiaries to Olams Group Company.

The picket which took place at Bua office, No. 4 Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Lagos, started at 11:30am as the protesters carry placards with inscription: "Pay us our 10%; Our redundancy is not negotiable; Jail Dotun Adako & Chima for fraud; Our effort made Bua Group & Co worth N35b; We are not slaves, pay us our 10%".

Coordinator of the protest, Akasan Sylvester, explained that their due entitlements have not been paid and what was given to them from sales of Bus Group International was pittance compared to what actually should be paid.

"Be it known that we are aware that the company was sold for $275m and even when the process of bargaining was on with final buyer, Olams International Limited, your management chose to spin and concoct a web of lies that the company was not under any threat of being sold, with very clear intentions to deceive workers," he stated.

Among other things, the protesters demand that payment of redundancy package to all workers and staff of Bua Flour and Pasta to a tune not less than 20 percent of the th total sale of the company.

They also demand an opening of the accounts of Bua Flour and Pasta to see the true figure of the sale of the company.

Reacting on the picketing, the Group Head, Corporate Communications of Bua, Mr O'tega Ogra, pointed out that the action of the their former employees was a surprise because the company made full payment to them on December 18, 2015 after selling its asset to Olams.

"Bua Group International sold its asset in January 11, 2016. So we handed over the employees to our buyer (Olams) and paid them off. As at when talks on the sales were still on, we kept informing the employees. So the protesters are not even under our employment following the handover, they are now employees of Olams and I don't know why they are here picketing," he added.