The Mano Palm Oil Industries’ concession area has turned into a terrifying zone as aggrieved employees reached a conclusion to stage a go-slow in demand of their salary. Currently, the employees have taken strike actions against the management of the institution for failure to increase their salaries.
In an interview, the aggrieved employees’ Chairperson, John P. Kolleh said the management of Mano Oil Palm reached an agreement in a resolution with Sime Darby Plantation that employees should never be redundant and salaries should remain the same.
He said since the withdrawal of Sime Darby, the new management has brought untold suffering on citizens of Bomi and Grand Cape Mount Counties. He added that the original turnover note initiated between both companies, Mano presented to the workers’ union and the government altered portions of the document.
Mr. Kolleh asserted that the alleged fake document presented by Mano Management runs contrary to what has been agreed upon during the turnover note preparation. Following four years of operations a leaked document which came from Malaysia and landed in the aggrieved workers union’s hands, the necessary information were revealed to the workforce.
In the turnover document, a copy of which was obtained by this institution, Section 26, Sun-Section 3, Paragraph 7, stated, “That the company shall not make any person who is an employee redundant at the completion date for at least a period of 12 twelve months from completion date and the company will maintain the terms and conditions of employment existing at the completion of the employees with new employment pursuit.
Mano, as an institution has been in the news from time to time for the wrong reasons ranging from bad labor practices to low salaries deduction and illegal redundancy of employees. On June 1, 2022, the institution’s sister company-Mano Manufacturing Company’s employees staged a peaceful protest in demand of the establishment of a union for workers of the company to help address many complaints and challenges employees continue to face.
The aggrieved protesters who once besieged the premises of the company were seen with placards bearing the inscription, “No union no work; eight years no employment and bad labor practice general, manager Asadd Fadel,”
This issue of bad labor practices and unpaid salaries to include indecent living conditions has been a long-standing demand by employees of Mano Manufacturing and the Mano Palm Oil Industry, an alleged action to prioritize the management over the workers’ interest.
The Chairperson of the go-slow action, Kolleh added that whenever they raise concerns of maltreatment and the payment of their salaries that the company has defrauded them, they have been at the verge of consistent threats of dismissal.
“We have written to the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other government officials but whenever they are around, no better response to our plight as they will sometimes tell us that the company doesn’t owe us any money,” one of the aggrieved employees said.
“These people are very wicked, we will never sit and allow foreigners to maltreat us in our country because we are the ones doing all of the hard labor while they make thousands of United States Dollars,” he intoned.” He outlined bad labor practices reportedly carryout by the MANCO Management, thus risking the lives of the workers.
“Our report finds out that the Government of Liberia intervened through the Ministry of Labor and Internal Affairs including the Justice Ministry where they gathered several evidence but the workers were shocked to note that the government informs them that the management of Mano did not owe the employees and that their points were not genuine.
According to Kolleh, what frustrated them the most was when Senator Simeon Taylor intervened and alleged that he informed them in a meeting that the company doesn’t owe them a dime and whether the aggrieved workers like or not, he will still win comes 2029 elections.
Meanwhile, when contacted, the management of Mano Oil Palm pleaded to respond at a later date.
