Staff of Sumal/Yale Foods in Ibadan on Monday staged a protest against the company’s refusal to pay them the palliatives as directed by the federal government some time ago, it was gathered that other companies including Zartech and 7Up have since paid their workers except Sumal foods.
The federal government had last year directed the organized private sector to give their workers palliatives and stop paying taxes for six months.
Workers are also asking for salary increment and better wage as the inflation soars making things very difficult.
Instead, Sumal/Yale informed the staff that it would be paying 10% of their basic salary as palliative. The issue is that most of these staff are being hugely underpaid with the average sum of their basic salaries hovering around N20,000. This in turn make the palliative awarded them a meagre 2,000 or less in many other instances.
It is understood other companies like Zartech and 7Up are paying a minimum of 15,000 or more as palliatives to their staff.
However, Yale Foods did not address the plights of the workers instead, went to hire policemen, operation burst, and civil defence to intimidate the protesters, some workers were also arrested.
The terrible incident led to gunshots by the Policemen which has now allegedly left two people dead with many injured from the heated fracas.
