EDITORIAL: Richard Gbadebo’s death and the unsafe working conditions of our factories

On July 27, a 300-level Student of University f Ibadan, Richard Gbadebo died in a factory owned by Henkel Industries, producers of WAW detergent, while on night shift. The circumstances that surrounded his death has generated controversy and raised concern on the need to ensure protection of casual workers in the country.

According to reports, the late Gbadebo who worked as an operator in the factory died after falling into a soap-making machine. His enrollment for the job was as a result of the closure of schools due to the covid-19 pandemic. He was reported to have allegedly fallen into the machine, which crushed him to death in the process. His colleagues were said to be unaware of the situation until they saw blood gushing out from one end of the machine.

However, his family did not buy the story of the company and the colleagues of the 21-year-old. They accused the company of cover-up. They said the company had refused to give an official version of the circumstances that led to the death of their son but only gathered from other workers in the factory that the machine that reportedly caused Richard’s untimely death was supposed to be operated by at least four persons.

The family claimed that when the corpse was retrieved the following day by 12noon, the stomach was sliced open, his trousers and boot were on and the head was intact, and there were no trace of blood on his body.

For the family, the delay in releasing the corpse after the incident happened in the dead of the night till noon the following day shows the company was trying to hide something.

The unfortunate death of Gbadebo redirects searchlight to the inhuman treatment of casual workers by operators and owners of factories in the country. Most are terrible employers who treat their worker as slaves. Most factories are run like concentration camps. They operate recklessly without regards to labour laws.

In June, about 600 casual workers of a rice factory were released by the police after they were locked up in the premises of the rice milk for three months.

The workers were denied access outside the premises for fear of contacting and spreading Covid-19 in the factory.

We acknowledge the intervention of the Oyo state government through the State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. We therefore urged that comprehensive investigation should be carried out and justice delivered to serve as deterrent to other factory operators and management in the country.

It is time for the government to ensure that labour laws in the country are enforced while the right of casual workers to associate and unionised is guaranteed.

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