BUA Flour pays off staff, begins immediate reabsorption of interested workers

In response to the demands of its protesting staff, the management of BUA Flour and Pasta, subsidiaries of leading indigenous Foods and Infrastructure conglomerate in Nigeria, BUA Group has made provisions to pay affected staff entitlements fully in line with the company policy.

According to a statement made available by the Group Head, Corporate Communications, O’tega Ogra, the decision to pay off the staff of the two subsidiaries is based on the request of the staff of the subsidiaries that they be paid off their entitlement with the companies either in the event of a divestment or not.

It will be recalled that some staff of the two subsidiaries had on Tuesday, December 1 and Monday December 9, 2015 staged a protest at the group’s head office in Victoria Island, Lagos with the claim that the flour arm of the group’s business has been sold off to new owners and feared that they will be laid off without their entitlements been paid.

BUA Group, in response to the employees protest action, denied the sale of the subsidiaries.

The statement from BUA then read in part that, “There was a protest at our Head office by employees of our Pasta and Flour subsidiaries due to apprehension over an alleged sale of our flour and pasta milling businesses.

As a thriving business that has consistently bucked the performance trend positively in the Flour and Pasta business in Nigeria, BUA receives serious unsolicited expressions of Interest from various companies across the world on its various businesses”.

“Whilst we have actively considered some of these overtures in the course of the year, we have not sold any of the companies at this time. In the event that we sell any of our subsidiaries, we are committed to ensuring all employees get their full benefits in line with the company policy”, they stated.

Announcing the decision to pay off the workers, BUA in its statement maintained that BUA Group has not divested from any of its subsidiaries.

“Whilst we are currently repositioning for growth, which may involve divestments from some subsidiaries, we have not sold any of our subsidiaries at this point in time but based on the request of the staff of these subsidiaries that they be paid off either in the event of a divestment or not, the management of BUA Group has made provisions to pay affected staff their entitlements in line with the company policy which, based on an independent industry research, ranks us as the highest paying within the industry.

Entitlements have been calculated and cheques made available for collection from 9am to 3pm daily at our Apapa Business office.

Whilst these staff has unjustifiably abandoned their duty posts with some of them acting in a manner that is unlawful including attacking security personnel stationed at our Apapa office, the company has however put structures in place for staff willing to continue their employment to be immediately reabsorbed into the organization,” the statement read.