Ethiopia’s largest cement producer, Dangote Cement, has suspended some of its operation. The company did this after the employment exchange company it signed agreements with for the provision of human resource, dubbed EZE ENginnering, had its license revoked by Oromia State.
Suspended works are mining and packaging operations works. Following this the company has stopped supplying cement to its customer as of Friday, August 4, 2017.
The employment exchange company had 3 years contract to deploy workforce and manage mining and cement packaging operations. As per the contract between the 2 companies, 400 personnel were working with Dangote.
"It is the government that revoked the license of the agency because of the complaints raised by the employees deployed by the agency,” Dangote’s country manager, Deep Kamara, explained.
Kamara noted that the workers stopped working when the employment exchange firm’s license was cancelled. “We have already advertised for small and micro enterprises or other alternative agencies to come in. We are exploring all the options. I am sure in the coming few days we should be able to resolve and resume work,” Kamara explained.
“It is a matter of two or three days. We will manage to hire another enterprise and resume regular operation,” Kamara explained.
Commenting on his part owner and manager of EZE Elias Kifle saidthere were some disputes between his company and the employees regarding salaries and other benefits. “Like any company we had labor issues which we tried hard to resolve. Our employees have established a labor union. And the labor union wants to directly work with Dangote Cement. The employees do not want to work through an agency,” Elias said.
It was after the labor union requested Oromia’s Labor and Social Affairs Bureau that the later canceled EZE’s license, Elias explained. “They instructed us to stop working on June 30. We respect their decision and stopped our work as of July 1. We did not file complaint because we respect their decision,” Elias furthered.
According to EZE’s manager, the Bureau is trying to organize the human resource in small enterprises so that the later can be the party to the employment exchange agreements.
Source: The Reporter
