When Employers Owe....

Congratulations, the job is yours! 

Whao, intense joy, this has to be shared during ‘testimony time’ in church next Sunday.  

After months of searching every job site and dropping off CV’s in various organizations,the hard work has finally paid off. No one said the road will be this tough when shortly after graduating from the UK, I decided to come back home.

  Getting a masters degree abroad had been a great experience but staying

 back was not an option for me. I have always believed in the saying, ‘no

 place like home’........

 It wasn’t long after I came home that I started wondering if I should

  have stayed back in the UK working the part time job that I would never be

  caught doing in my country. Anyway the CV’s kept going out and the request

  for interviews came in trickles. I remember that one interview that made me

  shed tears. It was with a financial institution that is known to employ

 light skinned fleshy females. Being on the skinny side I didn’t think that

  would be a barrier after all, what is in my head should be more important

  than my physique.

  The interview was done and to my surprise the interviewer told me ‘you are

  qualified for the role but you need to eat more, be full (at the same time

  gesticulating with his hands to signify widening up). Imagine my shock! 

No way !

did this man sitting in front of me say I was too thin for the job?. I

  wasn’t applying for a manual labour work. This was supposed to be a white

  collar job for goodness sake. I thought thin was in vogue, if not why would

  I be sweating it out taking long walks and jogging daily? Anyway after much

  confidence boosting talks with family and friends, I was ready to continue

  with my job search.

  Surely a job came shortly, an Internet service provider gave me my much

  needed break and the pay I will say was ok. Not fantastic but good enough.

  And yeah, right on the island so I was close to family. First week at work

  and I could see that the organization needed more structure but asides this

  it was ok.

  The pay came at the right time (last day of every month) until it started

  coming on the first week of the next month. Well not a big deal, at least

  it was coming. Human Resources will usually send a mail apologising and

  blaming it on one thing or the other. Then it started coming 2 weeks late,

  then 3 weeks late, then 1 whole month late.

 Hmm something was fishy. 

Oh wait a minute, Human resources hadn’t sent an apology for the delay yet.

  Off course rumours have started to fly, liquidity problems etc. Could this

  be true?

  Surprisingly, it was business as usual, routine meetings were still being

  held with executives and no one was saying anything. The greatest shock was

  that punishment was still being netted out on people that ‘drop the ball’

  during the course of performing their duties; 5% deduction from their

  salaries, 2 weeks suspension or 1 week working suspension(25% salary

  deduction) . 

Can you really blame people for underperformance? 

Surely morale was low so lack of concentration was expected. People were probably thinking of how to solve problems that money should ordinarily solve.

  So, it’s been almost 3 months and still no wages, no apology from anyone

  and no explanation but the MD’s summer holiday was just processed. Business

  class tickets for the family to the tune of almost 4 MILLION NAIRA! 

This must be a joke. How on earth can anyone think of going on holiday knowing well that their staff has not been paid?

  I also just found out that pension and tax are not being remitted,although my payslip states otherwise. 

Hmm... my Honourable Governor must not hear this. Afterall, ‘eko o ni baje’. 

       I wonder if there are state labor laws and employment laws that cater for employee rights because surely owing staff wages must be illegal.

  Luckily I am still single with little responsibilities but what about the

  colleagues that have wives and kids, the ones paying their siblings through

  school or the ones that support their aged parents? Majority are talking of

   leaving but are scared they may never get paid if they leave and might also

  be seen as being disloyal.

  Funny thing is that job opportunities were just posted on the company’s

  website. The ‘lucky’ person will think, finally a job!  Well I don’t know

  but that did it for me.

 Typed my resignation letter and dropped it off. I will give them one month grace to pay my outstanding after which I might sue.

   I am human and I work for money, if you need loyalty, go get a dog.

  PS: I did resign, I didn't sue (no need to as the coy collapsed due to

  huge debts) enrolled in french school for a few months. 3 months later, I

  got a better job. 3 years later, I am still working in the same place and

  my salary has never been delayed by 1 single minute!

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