Okitipupa Oil Palm workers end strike

Peace and stable labour activities have finally returned to the embattled Okitipupa Oil Palm Company (OOPC), Okitipupa, Ondo State, crippled for months by strike carried out by a section of its workforce — the cutters and harvesters.

The company’s Lead Management Consultant (LMC), Taiwo Adewole, who also doubles as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), disclosed in an interview with The Guardian at the weekend that the company has settled the seven months salary arrears owed over 2,000 workers across the 10 oil palm estates belonging to the firm. He noted that the 199 others serving the company’s headquarters and corporate office at Okitipupa have been paid salary arrears up till this year’s March.

Adewole explained that the balance from April has been affected by the company’s ‘No Work, No Pay rule, adding that the two parties are talking on how to mutually resolve it.

The CEO blamed former management for instigating workers against the new management by deceiving them that the new cashless regime introduced by the new team was aimed at sacking some of them.

According to Adewole, under the cashless regime, all workers, permanent and casual, are to open bank accounts for their salaries, which he noted would help check ghost workers.

The second aspect of the policy he explained is to compel customers to desist from paying cash when applying for products and when supplied. He disclosed that the company lost several millions of Naira to corrupt officers who collected money from distributors and other buyers without remitting same to the company’s account.

He expressed delight that e-payment policy has started yielding huge results, especially now that all the workers have keyed into it.