Sacked street sweepers protest non-payment of severance package

The former workers carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘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’, among others.
They said they were engaged by the Lagos State Ministry of Environment as non-permanent staff before they were verbally transferred to the Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA).
The leader of the protesting sacked workers,  Mr. Shaka Taiwo Ibrahim, told our reporter that they were receiving N10,000 when they were employed in 2010 by the Ministry of Environment, adding that as soon as they were transferred to LAWMA, N2,000 was added to their monthly salary making it N12,000.
According to him, they were protesting because they have not been settled since 2010 when they were disengaged from work.
Ibrahim said: “We are protesting because they cannot send us away empty handed after working for eight years. We were given appointment letters. Even when they sent us away, they collected our ID cards, they collected our names but up till now, nothing has happened,” he said.
He said that LAWMA paid their salaries for about six months after which they were asked to pack their baggage and leave.
He also revealed that they were about 1000 sweepers that were disengaged, adding that at the time they were sacked in 2010, they protested and an official of the Lagos State House of Assembly contacted the General Manager, LAWMA, Dr. Ola Oresanya, leading to their invitation to the Ijora office where about 40 of them were paid N40,000 as severance package.
He explained that as soon as they were informed, they contacted LAWMA, where the GM held a meeting with them in Ijora but said he did not owe them unless he decided to pay them on humanitarian ground.
He appealed to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, to intervene and ensure that they receive their severance package, adding that some of them are widows who need the money to take care of their families.
They alleged that they were disturbed that one Sasore, a LAWMA official paid them half of their salary the very month they were disengaged from service.