Another Glo Scandal Revealed: How Mike Adenugu Compelled Staffs to Sign Non- Disclosure Bond on Slavish Employment Contract Globacom Management has increased the use of forced labor in all its affiliates in Nigeria during the past year, according to an ongoing investigation by the PSN. The Mobile giants in a desperate bid apparently to squelch the effect of the damming PSN report, “Gloing with Servitude,” published last month, has asked employees to sign non-disclosure agreements or risk being dispatched to the dreaded labor market. Cast in properly researched investigative reporting style, the story chronicled the various episodes of forced labor, voodoo employment contract bond, bullying and harassment of employees by Globacom Management under the watch of the hulking and swash- buckling Emperor Mike Adenuga and his crew of daughters, Abimbola and Bella. Again, PSN has obtained credible evidence of Globacom officials’ harassing employees who tried to report or discuss the issue which is still attracting huge response, public scrutiny and international labor attention pressure on the communication outfit. Investigations by PSN reveal that Globacom through illegal tactics force employees to sign bonds in order to keep their jobs. Almost all employees at the Glo World have fallen victim to “forced labor”, trapped in jobs which they were coerced or deceived to take and from which they cannot leave easily. Globacom Communications using phony service provider called ‘Contact Center Services Limited,’ to recruit the employees and subject them to modern day slavery. It is widely acknowledged that Globacom has long relied on forced labor, using another company known as, ‘Global Manpower,’ to perpetrate their illegal recruitment drive. According to Jane Oladapo, not real name, “I was employed in late 2006 by Contact Center Services Limited a Globacom subsidiary; four years later I was asked to sign a document with another company called Global Manpower alongside a bond”. “I was not given a copy of the bond, neither was I informed or advised of the content”. “I was asked to sign it to guarantee my job in the presence of a senior official of Globacom, and my cluster manager, who gave me a minute to sign it and hand it back to him”. “In November 2012, I got an offer of employment from an insurance firm, I wrote an official letter of resignation with enough notice time,” I was however shocked when I was informed that I will have to pay the sum of N10 million Naira for me to leave”. PSN obtained a letter written by Globacom, and signed by one Adewale Sangowawa, executive director, requesting for the sum of N10 million from Oladapo. The letter stated that, “Please recall that it was clearly stated in clause 5 of the agreement part of the bond as follows, In the event that the employee disengages from the services of Glo at any time before the expiry of the bond, the employee hereby agrees to pay Contact Center Services Limited, CCSL on behalf of Globacom the sum of =N=10,000,000.00 (Ten Million Naira)”. A preponderant of staff in the same predicament as Oladapo claimed they did not know that they had signed a bond contract until they were about to quit Globacom. Mr. Sangowawa the Executive Director Human Resources of Globacom however wrote another letter to Oladapo early this year informing her of where to make the payment. According to him, “You are to write a cheque to pay the above stated sum of N10,000,000.00 (Ten Million Naira) in full amount in favor of Glo Mobile Limited and send to the Human Resources Department. In the alternative, pay to Account Number 2576747778111 at any Sterling Bank branch and thereafter send the teller evidencing the payment to the same Human Resources Department”. A senior official of the Labor Ministry speaking to PSN said that the labor law of Nigeria is clear, “no employee can be forcefully employed against his will, just because he has signed a contract with the employer, it is even illegal when the employee is unaware of the bond”. Investigations so far carried out revealed that most staffs affected are the most vulnerable and least protected, perpetuating a vicious cycle of poverty and dependency giving them no room to resist Globacom’s coercion at work. PSN gathered that Globacom’s unscrupulous recruiting process has enabled them profit at the employees’ exploitation. In one of Mr. Adewale Sangowawa’s letter to Oladapo, he threatened not to respond to the insurance firm’s letter of employment verification, unless she paid the bond amount in a ‘One-Off’. He also repeated the threat in his last letter to her by saying, “The Company shall be in a position to respond to the reference from your new employer when you have cleared this indebtedness. According to a human rights activist and attorney who reviewed a copy of the bond said that, “Contracts entered between two parties if is one sided then such contract would be null and void. The Globacom contract bonds are one sided”. “According to the labor Act no contract can be enforced on any person if the contract which is being so enforced causes any harm to the person on whom it’s enforced and if performed would violate principles of natural justice, “he concluded. PSN can authoritatively reveal that over 12 current and former employees of Globacom has come together to petition the National Assembly on the frivolous actions of Glo that constitutes an infringement on Nigeria’s labor laws. (Could this be true? See globalvillageextra)
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 19:47:15 +0000
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