SIEMENS LIED, SACKED NIGERIAN WORKERS INSIST, DEMAND EQUITABLE SEVERANCE PACKAGE

Tony John, Port Harcourt

Nigeria, April 28, 2016 – Over 70 per cent of Nigerian workers who were summarily disengaged by Dresser-Rand, a subsidiary of SIEMENS Limited, a German multinational Technological and Engineering company, have debunked the claim made by SIEMENS that Dresser-Rand has adequately compensated the disengaged Nigerian staff.

Some of the workers claimed that none of the staff disengaged has received any redundancy benefit from Dresser-Rand, thereby debunking the statement made by SIEMENS Communications Manager, Titilola Taiwo, on Wednesday, April 27.

The workers also claimed that Dresser-Rand did not follow Dresser-Rands established redundancy process in disengaging its Nigerian workforce. In addition, the aggrieved workers are vexed that Dresser-Rand also contravened extant Nigerian laws by not following redundancy procedures as established by law.

According to the workers, Dresser-Rand commenced the disengagement of Nigerian workers while a matter to that effect was still pending before the Nigerian Industrial Court, in suit number: NICN/YEN/42/2016, at the Yenagoa Division, in Bayelsa State, which they claim amounts to a contempt of court.

The workers declared: “The arrogant attitude of SIEMENS confirms its disregard for the plight of its Nigerian staff and the laws of the land. Up to now, they have not shown any remorse for what the company has done to us and our families”

“The claim by the Communications Manager of SIEMENS, Mrs. Taiwo, that Dresser-Rand was acquired by SIEMENS in a business arrangement is correct, but her claim that Nigerians that were disengaged have be adequately compensated is a blatant lie”.

The workers emphasised: “Without any equivocation, none of the over 70 per cent Nigerian workers disengaged by Dresser-Rand has received any monies in the form of redundancy benefits from the company. It is either SIEMENS deliberately wants to mislead the Nigerian public or hoodwink the Nigerian government that is poised to implement the local content Act”.

Sources told journalists, in Port Harcourt, yesterday, that counsel to the disengaged Nigerian workers, Soalabo West, would soon send a petition against SIEMENS to the National Assembly and other relevant agencies of government, “highlighting other breaches of Nigerian law perpetrated by SIEMENS and its subsidiary, Dresser-Rand”.

It was learnt that Messrs Doudou Sar, a Senegalese and, Lemuardo Neto, from Angola,who were drafted by SIEMENS to coordinate the retrenchment of over 70 per cent of Nigerian workers from Dresser-Rand, were last week deported by the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS. They had entered the country to work without a work permit.

The Rivers State Comptroller of the Nigeria Immigration Service, in Port Harcourt, I. A. Haliru, had last week ordered for the arrest of both Sar and Neto when the story broke. It was learnt that the controller had despatched some of his men to accompany Sar and Neto to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos from where they boarded different planes out of the country.

While Neto flew to Angola, Sar left for France, his operational base before his deployment to Nigerian to join his Angolan colleague, Neto, to coordinate the disengagement of Nigerian workers Dresser-Rand.