She added that most of the cases they have been seeing in the industrial court are unlawful and unfair dismissals, noting that some of the problems come from either the employees or employers, noting that people are afraid to stand up for their right in some work places thinking that they will be targeted.
“Please stop being afraid and come to the Legal Aid Board for us to fight for you because we deal with lot of these similar issues” she pleaded to workers.
The LAB according to Hanciles has taken to court a company in Cline Town for having over 120 of their employees on ‘casual’ basis that have worked for more than 13 years but are still receiving daily wage salaries without medical and leave allowances and without hope of promotion. She stated that a good number of institutions still do not pay their workers the minimum wage of Le500,000 (five hundred thousand Leone).
“Lots of workers are being marginalized, segregated, brought down, demoralized and not given the opportunity they deserve in their offices,” Hanciles said.
She further said that the government needs to look at workers issues very closely because the salaries which are being paid are not commensurate with the work they are being asked to do, noting that there has been lots of false promises about salary increment that never goes through.
“The informal sector has never been seriously taken into consideration by the government and if you look at the men and women that are being unlawfully dismissed, they are all professionals,” Hanciles said.
