{"id":1066,"date":"2021-07-11T17:01:57","date_gmt":"2021-07-11T17:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/?p=1066"},"modified":"2022-04-17T16:16:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T16:16:08","slug":"two-dozens-former-firestone-workers-fight-alleged-illegal-dismissal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2021\/07\/11\/two-dozens-former-firestone-workers-fight-alleged-illegal-dismissal\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Dozen Former Firestone Workers Fight Alleged Illegal Dismissal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Top: A signboard welcoming people to the headquarters of Firestone Liberia. The DayLight\/Varney Kamara<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

By Varney Kamara<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HARBEL, Margibi County \u2013 Six months after Firestone sacked Moses Flomo without severance pay after nearly three decades of service, he suffered a severe injury while performing a menial job at a farm in Totota, Bong County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors had to cut some flesh from his buttocks to stitch his injured, left knee. Having recovered fully, Flomo, 54, has been stuck at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia for more than a month now. Why? He cannot foot his medical bill of L$200,000 (US$1,176).   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Firestone had not sacked me, or even if they had given me my benefit, I wouldn\u2019t have ended up in a hospital,\u201d Flomo tells The DayLight in an interview inside his hospital ward. \u201cAll my suffering\u2026 has gone in vain. I don\u2019t know how I will leave this hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flomo was among 24 workers Firestone sacked in July 2019 after a fire they started in their gardens spread over scores of rubber trees on the company\u2019s plantation in Margibi County in May that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dismissed workers, who served the company between nine and 30 years, are challenging their dismissal. They sued the company at the Civil Law Court in Monrovia for wrongful dismissal less than two weeks into their sacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firestone says its investigation found the former workers were not authorized to burn their farm, though the company was aware they had a garden and cut a 50-foot fire boundary. \u201cYou did not obtain permission from your bosses before burning your garden, which resulted in 12 rubber trees being affected, thereby leaving two of the affected rubber trees dead at the location,\u201d Flomo\u2019s  July 8, 2019 dismissal letter, seen by The DayLight, read. Firestone alleges that its action violated the Decent Work Act of 2015<\/a>, which allows companies to dismiss employees who \u201ccarelessly or intentionally destroyed\u201d their properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dismissed Firestone worker Moses Flomo sits at the John F. Kennedy Medical (JFK) in Monrovia. The DayLight\/Varney Kamara <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Firestone Workers Union (FAWUL), which leads the lawsuit for Flomo and the other workers, has a different version of the incident.  FAWUL says its investigation showed that no rubber tree was destroyed despite being \u201cscorched,\u201d adding Firestone is still tapping the trees in question. The DayLight\u2019s investigation shows that the rubber trees in the middle of the dispute in Division 35 are currently being tapped. This reporter saw tapping marks and rubber cups fastened to the controversial trees, with latex in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FAWUL also alleges that Firestone sacked the workers without its knowledge.  \u201cAll warnings, suspension and dismissals will be read and explained to the offending employee in the presence of the Union representatives,\u201d reads the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between Firestone and the workers. \u201cThe shop steward\/union representatives will witness with his\/her signature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case has been moved to the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in Kakata. In August last year, the Civil Law Court in Monrovia transferred the case there over jurisdiction. The Monrovia court had ordered the transfer to Margibi since it was where Flomo and the other workers were dismissed. FAWUL had asked the court to make a declaratory judgment, which happens when a party does not dispute an allegation against it. But Judge Yamie Gbeisay denied that request. Gbeisay also rejected Firestone\u2019s petition to dismiss the case in the September 11, 2019 ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final augments into the case ended in March but the ruling has not been handed down. Judge Koboi Nuta, who now presides over it, refused to give The DayLight the case filings, which are public documents. We managed to obtain it elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will be strongly disappointed if my people lose this case,\u201d says Allen Attoh Wreh, the representative of Margibi District #3. \u201cI am fully on the side of my people because the dismissal was not the right decision here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evicted in the Rain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flomo and other workers were evicted from their plantation homes less than a month after their dismissal, despite the Margibi court\u2019s disapproval at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was raining heavily when armed men arrived. They threw my proprieties outside of my house,\u201d recalls Moses Tokpah, who worked as a rubber tapper. \u201cI am left with nothing. I cannot afford to feed my family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firestone denies any wrongdoing, adding the dismissals were legal. The company had warned the employees against setting fire in the area as it was close to its plantation, and the weather was windy, according to Patrick Honnah, Firestone\u2019s communications manager. He did not show any proof of prior warning. \u201cThe group of employees disregarded the warnings and set fires\u2026,\u201d says Honnah in an emailed interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disputed dismissals came four months after Firestone announced<\/a> it would lay off 800 workers or 13 percent of its workforce. The company said the job cuts were overhead-cost-related losses due to a slump in the prices of rubber and low production, linked to the Liberian Civil War. It cut the planned layoffs to 374 workers last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firestone is one of Liberia’s<\/em> leading employers, with more than 6,000 employees, almost entirely Liberians. The House of Representatives was furious<\/a> that the proposed redundancies would have taken bread from the mouths of thousands of Liberians. The company\u2014owned by Japan\u2019s Bridgestone Corporation and is the world\u2019s single-largest natural rubber producing company\u2014stood firm on its decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These episodes have created an atmosphere of fear throughout Firestone\u2019s 45 divisions, according to Rodennick Bongorlee, the president of the Firestone Agriculture Workers Union (FAWUL). A truck driver around the same time Flomo was fired, Firestone dismissed a truck driver over drunkenness, though the volume he consumed did not breach its policy. FAWUL intervened and he was allowed back to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\u2026 workers on the plantation are nervous that they, too, can be fired at any time,\u201d Bongorlee says. \u201cWe\u2019ll fight this case. We\u2019ll not rest until our people get justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This June 17, 2021 picture shows some of the controversial trees at the center of the wrongful dismissal lawsuit against Firestone. The Daylight\/Varney Kamara <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The current unfolding at Firestone Natural Rubber Company, LLC resembles the company\u2019s complicated history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1926, it signed a 99-year deal by the government of Liberia to lease a million acres at a price of six cents per acre, regarded as one of the worst concessions<\/a> in human history. The parties amended<\/a> the agreement in 2008, to extend it to 2046.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long after that, it was involved in forced recruitment of workers, leading to the resignation of President Charles D.B. King, according to Liberia\u2019s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in its report in 2009.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1990\u2014the same year Flomo was employed\u2014 Firestone gave rebels US$2 million annually for protection to continue its operations while the war was ongoing, the TRC said. Those findings were corroborated in a 2014 report<\/a> by ProPublica on the company\u2019s wartime dealings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-2000s, it was soaked in allegations of workers sleeping in windowless buildings, child labor and other work-related issues.  It denied those allegations but began making improvements beginning in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And last month, over 200 retirees won their lawsuit<\/a> against Firestone and the National Social Security and Welfare Corporation (NASSCORP) over pension benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Firestone plantation at Division 26, Margibi County. Varney Kamara\/The Daylight. June 17, 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Still, on his hospital ward, Flomo does not intend to work with Firestone again. The lawsuit he and his colleagues filed two years ago demands reinstatement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI only want my severance pay for all these years I labored,\u201d says the father of seven, sitting in a red plastic chair in short trousers with large scars on his thighs and left knee. His 29 years of service could earn him more than US$3,000. \u201cI purposed in my heart that I will build a three-bedroom house in Kakata upon receiving my pension money.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story is part of The DayLight\u2019s Human Rights Reporting Series.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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