.....I was deprived of annual leave for 12years-Ex-staff
...,. EFCC, FIRS urged to investigate firm’s activities over fraud, tax evasion
BY INVESTIGATORS
The
Grooming Center Microfinance Services which is said to be sponsored by
MicroRate has been alleged to be involved in a bridge of contract and
anti-labour practices that worth more than N27.446 million.
Nigeria
labour law under the terms and conditions of employment (cap C)
indicates the Redundancy column, which stated that the employer shall
use his best endeavours to negotiate redundancy payments to any
discharged workers who are not protected by regulations made.
It
also provided regulations, generally or in particular cases for the
compulsory payment of Redundancy Allowances on the termination of a
worker's employment because of his redundancy.
The
aforementioned labour laws, however, not adhered to by Grooming Center
Microfinance Services, a leading micro-financing firm in Nigeria, as it
flouted the Nigerian labour practices by sacking many of its workers
without payment of stipulated due benefits since June 2020.
In
our fact findings, we discovered that letters sent to the Grooming
Microfinance firm by the Law Office of Ponle Adeoye, Legal Practitioners
showed that Mrs Olufunke Akinrefon, Onome Mensah, Idanweka Titilayo and
Ojo Misilat have been deprived of redundancy benefits accruable to them
for no fewer than 9 months.
Consequently,
calculations of some figures contained in some documents from the firm’s
human resources, showed that “Idanweka Titilayo is entitled to the sum
of N 5,042,332.49 ( Five million, Forty-Two Thousand, three hundred and
thirty-two Naira, forty Nine Kobo; Funke Akinrefon is entitled to
N12,547,436.56, ( Twelve Million, Five hundred and Forty-Seven
thousand, Four hundred and thirty-six Naira fifty-six Kobo) Ojo Misilat
N4,856,876.38 ( Four million Eight hundred and fifty-six thousand, eight
hundred and seventy-six Naira, Thirty-Eight Kobo ), while Onome
Mensah's is estimated to be over N5Million only, amounting to
N27,446,645.43.
Meanwhile, the final letter
after a series of letters sent to the firm demanding for above unpaid
benefits to the aforementioned names by the Law firm, " dated 15th
October 2020 and 27th November 2020 respectively, which were received
and acknowledged by the Company stated, " You have failed, refused and
neglected to respond to the said letters in respect of all our clients
stated above, we hereby further demand for our clients' entitlement for
all the four ex-staff in your company.
"You are
hereby given 48hours from receipt of this letter to pay the sum
indebted to our clients. NOTE: failure to comply with the instruction of
our client by paying the sum demand by our clients shall leave us with
no other option to seek legal redress in court and further demanding for
damages”, it stated.
Speaking to newsmen on
behalf of three other concerned sacked staff members said, "for close to
12 years that I worked for the firm, I had never observed an annual
leave, also the company has been lying to be a Non-Governmental
Organization (NGO) to the Federal Government because of the huge amount
of the tax they will pay, even while deducting taxes from all the
workers.
“They didn't give us a tax certificate
as evidence of remittance to the government but always sent the graphic
presentation they deducted from our salaries as taxpayers.
“This
is the more reason why Federal Inland Revue Service (FIRS) and
antigraft agency, EFCC, need to investigate the organization over fraud
because they had just started microfinance bank two years ago, while
they had been operating as same for over twelve years but lied to the
government and carry out the same activities of being an NGO".
All
efforts to get the firm’s side of the story proved abortive, as enquiry
sent to the official mail of the company has not been responded to for
over two weeks.
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