Contractors of Dongxin Machinery, a Chinese company operating in Mount Barclay, Montserrado County, are calling for full employment.
By Emmanuel Wise Jipoh
Montserrado, Liberia, November 20, 2024—Dozens of workers at a Chinese company, Dongxin Machinery, in Bernard’s Farm, Mount Barclay, along the Monrovia-Kakata highway, are apprehensive of losing their jobs. They have been with the company for nearly two years without employment status.
Dongxin Machinery is a giant dealer in agricultural machinery and mining equipment.
The worried workers, who asked for anonymity, say they are in a dilemma as contractors because all of their contracts with the firm have expired almost a year now without renewal or opportunity for gainful employment. They lament that management seems bent on listening to their plight.
Voicing their concerns to the NEW DAWN, they also bitterly complained of unfair treatment, low salaries, and constant turmoil due to the prevalence of temporary contracts.
According to them, there is a lack of salary structure, unfair wages, and marginalization of expatriates.
A copy of a contract sheet obtained by this paper indicates the expiration of all contracts at the company.
The documents reveal the contract duration is six months, from 6 January 2024 to 6 July 2024, but the company has failed to revisit these agreements.
However, Dongxin Machinery refutes the report of the expiration of workers’ contracts and claims of unfair treatment at the entity.
Thomas Karbell Flomo, a staffer in the office of Madam MacDella Cooper, Senior Political Advisor to President Boakai, who referenced himself as Business Consultant to Dongxin Machinery Liberia, denied said allegations.
“These reports are baseless, are not true, and there’s no invalid contract of a worker here”, Mr. Flomo says.
Reports reveal that Dongxin Machinery Liberia does not have Human Resource personnel to serve as liaisons between Management and the workers, thereby allowing the ill-treatment of Liberian workers by the Chinese.
The investigation further reveals that Mr. Flomo is using his influence from the office of the Senior Political Advisor to the President to protect the company.
But he denied such influence and reiterated that management has preserved and protected workers’ faith and commitment.
According to him, no worker of Dongxin Machinery has an invalid contract, but he confirms that 9 Liberians working with the company are all unemployed, defending that this is in accordance with the Liberian Labor Standard.
He says under the Labor Standard, there are two types of employment: Definite Employment and Indefinite Employment.
Mr. Flomo explains that Definite Employment has to do with exact time and date an individual gets employed with an entity and the day his or her contract expires. In contrast, indefinite employment has no specific date and time, individual contract, or agreement with a company, and there is no expiration, something he describes as lifelong employment. Editing by Jonathan Browne
