" Liberia: Bea Mountain Workers' Union Blast Ministry of Labor for Ignoring Their Complaints, Threatens Strike Action Against Company's 'Bad Labor Practice'" 25 May 2023

In the letter addressed to the Ministry dated May 16, 2023, NUHACE recounted that since September, 2020 to now, the workers of BMMC/Construction and Mining Contractors (CMC) through their workplace representatives and their office, have filed a series of complaints against the BMMC/CMC management. The letter added that those complaints detailed several violations of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding and the outcome of discussions held between the Ministry of Labor, the local union, mother union and the management of the company at several venues and different dates including at the Ministry.

The institution noted that it categorized the workers' concerns into short term, medium term and long term for implementation based on advice from the office of the Minister of Labor, Cllr. Charles Gibson but unfortunately, NUHACE stressed that the management of BMMC/CMC has failed to implement all of the agreements reached through those social dialogue processes.

Stating the reasons for their planned strike and lockouts, NUHACE indicated that the BMMC willfully violates and refuses to provide direct or indirect housing for 90% of the employees as per (MDA Section 11.b). According to the parent union, what is more disturbing is the fact that the Ministry of Labor has been concerned with preventing workers from exercising their rights to strike and not prevailing on the BMMC/CMC management to do the right thing by implementing the various agreements.

NUHACE also stressed that the company has violated the Decent Work Act Chapter 14 Section 5e, j subsection 6 among others, noting that the management of the entity willfully violates the rights of casual workers who have overstayed the statutory period (DMA Chapter 13.2) and providing professional job to workers and classified it as casual workers.