Lagos: Sacked Street Sweepers Protest Non-Payment Of Severance Allowance

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines Monday, November 3rd, 2014

Ayo Balogun, Lagos

Street Sweepers sacked by the Lagos State Waste Management Agency on Monday stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA) protesting refusal of the Lagos State Government to pay their severance package.

They carried placards, some of which read: “Fashola, Please Help Us, Some of Us Are Widows,” “We Need Your Help Mr. Governor,” “LAWMA, please pay us our money,” “Fashola, please come to our rescue,” and several others.

The street sweepers said they were engaged by the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment as non-permanent staff before they were verbally transferred to the Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA).

Spokesperson of the sweepers, Shaka Ibrahim said they were receiving N10,000 when they were employed in 2010 by the Ministry of the Environment, saying that as soon as they were transferred to the LAWMA, N2,000 was added to their monthly salary making it N12,000.

According to him, they were protesting because they had not been settled since 2011 when they were disengaged.

“We are protesting because they cannot send us away empty handed after working for eight years. We were given appointment letter. Even when they sent us away, they collected our ID cards, they collected our names and up till now, nothing has happened,” he said.

He added that LAWMA paid their salaries for about six months after which they were sacked, saying that they were about 1,000 sweepers that were disengaged in 2010 when they protested.

According to him, the LAWMA General Manager, Ola Oresanya had told them in a meeting at Ijora that the agency did not owe them unless he decided to pay them on humanitarian ground.