By VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
There is allegation that 7 UP Bottling company has been engaging in unfair labour practices  especially employing casual workers. How would you respond to the allegation?

I do not know who is alleging what, as to the allegation, I can give you the category of workers that we have which to the best of my knowledge are also within the framework of the Nigerian Labour law. Yes, we have the regular staff, if you like, call them permanent staff, I think that is what you are calling pensionable employees and the people you call casuals whom you referred to as non pensionable.

Yes, we have casuals and casuals are used for different kinds of things. There are times when we have some jobs would not last for too long. We cannot recruit permanent staff for such jobs. For example, if we just received ten trailer loads of sugar and we are to take them from the Ports to the plant, of course, this sugar has to be loaded, when it gets to Ikeja, it has to be offloaded, it has to be stacked, all of that cannot not last for more than few hours or days depending on so many things.

*Femi Mokikan

For such, you get casuals; you ask them to do such jobs. You also have casuals that we use for operations too. As best as we can, we try to do that within the framework of the labour law, because the labour law allows us to use casuals.

Although you will not find the word ‘casuals’ in the labour Act but you will see sections relating to employer-employee relationship, you will translate that to mean there is some flexibility to the use of casuals and that is what we try to do.

Also, it is from this pool that we end up having some of our permanent staff. Because we do not want to take them up and drop them immediately, we bring them in to see what they can contribute.

Yes, we have casuals, but the casuals we have can be justified. The other interesting point that one should note, not only about 7UP, but generally, is that, sometimes, we take casual staff to help people out. For example, when we finish this interview, I would be surprised if you do not say “I have somebody in my house o, even if it is casual, just let him come and work.”

One man came here just this morning he was asking for a job for his own son, not even somebody living in his house. The boy is an HND holder. He said in Yoruba, that I should just fix his son somewhere. So, when someone comes like that, it is not that we need these individuals, but because of the pressure that is coming from outside, we choose to employ them.

You can imagine the kind of unemployment situation in the country. Take for instance, my wife’s youngest brother. He is living with us. He is an HND holder. My wife cannot believe it that I am having so much difficulty getting a job for this young man. For someone like that now, if there is an opportunity for a casual worker in our company, I would send him there so that he can at least, be engaged in something.

If you have such exceptional issues, how long could any of them stay before if possible, he or she can be converted to a permanent staff?

It is difficult to give a definite answer to that, in the sense that it varies from location to location. There are some places you will go to that you will hear that a particular casual has been there for a long time. But then there are some other places you will go to that someone comes in, and has only been there for a week, but all of a sudden there is an opening, either due to resignation or termination and such a person gets in.

If we want to replace or recruit new people, we usually do that from our casual pool. In fact, we do not recruit most of our salesmen (that is what we call our drivers) from outside because to drive that truck with full load requires special skill. Beyond resignation or termination, we also recruit people from the casual pool when there is a new opening. For example, when we get a new truck, we must get a sales man.

So it depends on the particular area where that salesman is, and the place they come from. But we try as much as we can, as I said, the law says we can relieve them after ninety days.

I am not saying that after ninety days, it is automatic; some can stretch beyond ninety days. Some of the casuals, even when you say it is ninety days, they will still want to continue after. At least, you know the man has something that he is collecting and so he stays.

If eventually you want to recruit a number of casuals, do you conduct tests for them?

Yes, we do. Our employment policy stipulates that whether you are a casual, management, or senior staff, you must go through a process, and that process, depending on the category, starts with an aptitude test. In fact, we have a unique scheme, with parallel lines; one is the graduate management trainees while the other one is the manufacturing management trainees.

Every year, we bring in a certain number of people as trainees, these are graduates of universities and polytechnics and of course, the first is the aptitude test. Up to this moment, we were conducting these tests on our own. But the logistics of this aptitude test is horrendous. I read in the papers, that some people die during aptitude tests, it makes me so scared of it.

The one we did two years ago, we started with 1750 people. The sight alone is enough to threaten any weak person. I was just praying until we finished everything, I was just begging God not to let anything untoward to happen.

Because if this happens, 7 UP is not a name you will say you can hide. You will see it in the press. So, since then, I have tried to persuade my people so that we can simply do this online without assembling all these people.

That is what we are trying to work on, so the next set of trainings that would be coming in, we believe that we can do it online. After the test, we usually have series of interviews before we finally get to the destination. For instance, if we are to recruit a sales man, we would use Vehicle Inspection Officer, VIO, to help us conduct test for the drivers.

In fact, it will interest you to note that there was one Federal Road Safety Corps man that we had to encourage to resign so that we could hire him. After the recruitment, we do a compulsory training. We also do eye tests, medicals etc.