Friday, March 29, 2024

Recession: Workers face tough year-end as employers cancel 13th month, cut salaries

  • It’s never been this bad – Employees

As the effects of the ongoing economic recession bite harder, with many companies closing business, scaling down operations and, in some cases, reviewing wages downward across board, the hope of celebrating the upcoming Christmas and New Year season in high spirit may have dimmed for several workers in the oil and gas, telecommunication and advertising sectors.

Indeed, checks by The Point showed that many top players across industries in the aforementioned sectors are worse hit by the lull in business occasioned by the recession.

Consequently, most of them have either slashed salaries of their employees by about 40 per cent, and/or stopped major bonuses such as the 13th month salary, foreign trips, food and housing allowances, among others.

A senior manager in an oil and gas firm in Apapa, which has its headquarters on Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, Victoria Island, Lagos, noted that the 2016 yuletide celebration would be worse than that of last year, which he thought was poor.

According to him, the management of his company had written a memo to members of staff, advising them not to expect their regular end of the year bonuses, like the all-expenses paid holiday trips to countries of choice, but promised to pay the allowances in 2017, as long as many of them are still with the company.

Some other organisations, it was gathered, had also told their employees not to expect the 13th month salaries, educational allowances and end of the year food items, among others, in 2017.

A manager with one of the leading advertising agencies in GRA Ikeja, Mr. Isaac Adewale, told The Point that the 2016 yuletide celebration would not be the same as before for employees.

He admitted that, though the economic recession had resulted in the agency owing its staff about three months’ salaries, some of the worse hit companies had also failed to be proactive in their managerial strategies.

For instance, he disclosed that his company, which rendered public relations and advertising consultancy services for three of the All Progressives Congress’ governors in the South West during the 2015 gubernatorial elections, as well as President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign team, is almost bankrupt today.

He said, “We are not certain we will be paid all outstanding salaries before Christmas, much less receive several gifts like bags of rice, live and frozen chicken and other food items, as it is done annually.

“In the last few months, we have been collecting only 40 per cent of our salaries, and no one would dare mentioning gifts or bonuses this year. I am afraid because my relatives are expecting some of the gifts from me and I do not know where to turn to for help.”

A staff of one of the telecommunication firms in Banana Island, Victoria Island, Lagos, Ms. Funmilola Afolabi, is also bothered that she may not be able to meet the increasing demands of her children this season.

She admitted that though the Telco where she works owed no salary, it had cancelled all benefits that came with the employees’ end-ofyear bonuses, including sponsored holiday trips.

She recalled that the employees usually got an all-expense paid trip to any international resort centre of choice and a new Mikano generating set or a 5KVA solar inverter system each, depending on the level of the staff, among other benefits.

These benefits, according to her, have been deleted from the system of the company. She told The Point, “My family members always look forward to travelling every year, because that is the only time we have and use for our family retreat; I don’t know how to explain to them that it won’t be possible this year.

“It is not that we cannot afford to pay for the trip ourselves, but we have been told that the current recession will exceed 2016 to the better part of 2017. We are planning to set up a family business now, in case the worst (job loss) happens next year.”

SALES WORSE HIT – Traders

Corporate gifts, especially Christmas hampers’ dealers are groaning, as they lament what they described as lull in the sales and order placement for their products in 2016. A trader that sells hampers at Oshodi market, Lagos, Ms. Titi Adebayo, narrated that 2016 was the worst year since she started the business five years ago.

She told The Point that apart from experiencing low patronage, none of her clients had responded to the proposals she submitted in the last two months. Adebayo said, “Sales was bad last year, but this is the worst.

Despite the lull witnessed in 2015, I started receiving orders by the beginning of November and some were coming, little by little, to demand for little baskets and not so big ones. “This year, I have not sold any hamper. My office is filled with empty baskets waiting to be filled, because we pack them when people order for them.”

A trader at Wuse market, Abuja, Ms. Bunmi Ajayi, said that most of her clients had also refused  her calls, as a result of paucity of funds in the country. According to her, corporate organisations and individuals ought to have been ordering for hampers by now, but she had not received any such order. “I even sent out proposals and reduced the prices, but they have not responded. It is really tough,” she told The Point.

Another corporate gift shop owner at Nataco Market, around Ganaja Junction in Lokoja, Kogi State, Mr. Sam Abraham, noted that the hamper business appeared to be ‘a no go area’ this year, because it would be exorbitant for people. Abraham said, “It has become an essential commodity because prices have gone up.

For a well-packaged hamper; you are talking of about N20, 000 and above. “Some people will calculate that money and buy some other gifts and distribute. You can see that we are sitting down, doing nothing and watching people wandering around in the market.”

He also lamented the sharp drop in demand for gift items from corporate organisations he normally received orders from annually. According to him, though most of his clients may not be owing their staff, they have reduced their gift items demand by half and also slashed his quotations drastically.

Artisans are also not left out in the bleak Christmas and New Year celebrations, as basket weavers at the popular Cane Village in Maryland, Lagos, also complained of low patronage from companies and individuals, who would have thronged the largest cane village in Nigeria to buy cane baskets for hampers by now.

A basket weaver, Mr. Timothy Isaac, said that the upcoming festival period was business ‘unusual’ for him and scores of his colleagues. He told The Point that despite reducing prices by about 40 per cent, owing to pressure from some clients, most of them had yet to sell a quarter of what they sold within the same period of 2015.

He lamented, “We knew that the recession would affect everybody, but we did not expect the effect to be this terrible and frustrating. “I had borrowed funds from relatives and friends to buy raw materials ahead of the season, but I doubt if my income can cover the borrowed funds, not to talk about profit.”

A basket trader, Ms. Rachael Onwordi, also told The Point that, unlike last year, when she made about N30, 000 profit every month from the sale of the baskets, she hardly makes N8, 000 from the business now.

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