Bimbola Oyesola
Domestic workers of De United Foods Industries Limited (DUFIL), makers of Indomie noodles, alleged to have been put under house arrest by their bosses for six months, have cried out to President Muhammad Buhari for help .
The General Secretary of the Federation of Informal Workers of Nigeria (FIWON), Gbenga Komolafe, in a statement to the media yesterday, titled “Save our Souls at DUFIL; We have not Seen our Families in 6 Months!”, said the workers cut across domestic workers; cooks, drivers, cleaners, nannies, stewards etc working with the company’s senior staff, most of whom are Asians.
He noted that the workers have been put under the most inhuman conditions at the homes of their bosses, all in the name of preventing COVID-19 , since early March, 2020, without being allowed to step out.
“Ironically these bosses go out every day, including attending social functions, while a few of them have even contracted the COVID -19 and infected the helpless domestic workers,” he said. According to the FIWON scribe, the affected domestic workers are largely drawn from those living with their bosses around Ikoyi and Victoria Island in Lagos.
He said: “The Federation of Informal Workers’ Organizations of Nigeria, (FIWON), a network of working people under informal employment in Nigeria was alerted about this development almost two months ago during which = efforts were made to reach out to the management of DUFIL to review its inhuman policy without any response or acknowledgement of the effort.
“We hope your respected news medium would help to throw a public searchlight into this flagrant violation of the human rights of these helpless Nigerians.”
Just like the case of the Kano rice factory, Komolafe said the workers were sequestered 24 hours in the homes of their bosses without respect for statutorily recognised work hours, public holidays, weekends etc and have been denied the right to see their families while those with little children have been unable to see them for six months now.