THE TRUE STORY ABOUT SWIPHA SHUT DOWN.
Good day all.

Please lets tell the world the truth about our company shutdown to correct the seeming impression the minds of people as seen from the press release of the MD of swipha.

Our company Swiss pharma Nigeria Ltd around march 2017 was acquired by a french company called Biogaran

The staff through the Union executives ( Junior staff and Senior Staff) promised the President of Biogaran Pascal Briere to be hardworking, law abiding, dedicated to their duties as they are always known for. They pledged to give 100% support to the new management in order to bring back swipha to his glory days.

About 6months ago the company employed a Managing Director Mr Gaby El Khoury, a Lebanese and former Employee of Jagal group. Since his employment he has turned things upside down to mention but a few;
1. Imposing a new Condition of Service that states that any staff that leaves the company either through termination or resignation must not work in other pharmaceutical company for a period of one year.
2. Employment of over 50 Jagal staff without following due process to head the HR department, Finance, Purchasing,Clearing and Forwarding, and Project Departments.
3. Demoted Area Managers who have many years of experience to Sales Representative,also reducing their salaries and filling their positions with Jagal staffs( Non Pharmacists) who are not as qualified and experienced as these ones he demoted.
4.Converted our staffs who are paid based on commission of what they sold to staff with a monthly net salary of N50,000( Basic, Transport,housing inclusive). These are B.sc. graduates and Master degree holders whose commission on sales monthly amount to over N300,000.
5.He unilaterally stopped the Gratuity of staff without recourse to Union representatives or their National Body ( Breaching the Agreement Between CANMPEF- Employers Federation, NUCFRLANMPE(JUNIOR STAFFUNION) and CANMPSSAN- SENIOR STAFF ASSOCIATION)...
6.He singlehandedly brought out a new Employees Handbook ( condition of service) without collective bargaining with the staff via their representatives.
7. The imposed Condition of Service has Monday to Saturday as normal days of work breaching the Labour law of not more than the required 40hrs of work per week.
8. The imposed Condition of Service has no 13th month pay or Christmas bonus in it, it has no Long service award in it and is silent on Gratuity etc.
9. The imposed Condition of Service reduced the number of leave days the staffs are entitled to from 20days to 15 days and from 25 days to 20 days as the case maybe.
10. He disengaged some members of Senior and Junior staffs without following due process and defying the Labour Law that states that the Employer must inform the Union representatives before disengagement.
11. He breached the Labour Act that states that the Employer must pay disengaged staff on or before the expiry date of disengagement by stating that the disengaged staffs should come in January 2018 for payment of their final benefits whereas their final date of disengagement is December 29th.
12.He indirectly disengaged all staff by turning their years of service to zero year starting from December 2017 breaching the Labour Act / CANMPEF and CANMPSSAN agreement on negotiation of redundancy benefits when restructuring or disengagement occurs.
13. He delayed the payment of staff December salary for not accepting the new Conditions of Service and new offer of employment, trying to coerce staff to sign the new contract even threatening staff individually via mails...(Evidence of such mails abound)
14. The new Condition of Service has no staff distinction or categorization as to whether a staff is a Senior Staff or Junior Staff...hence confirming his earlier statements of killing the Union.

So , while the staff sought the MDs face through their Union representatives to have a round table discussion on all these issues, he rebuffed them. He has threatened verbally to kill the Unions.

On 21st December 2017, the CANMPSSAN National executives came to see him as they have written for that meeting two days earlier, he rebuffed them as well.

So the staff as a whole after having an emergency Congress decided to embark on a SIT DOWN APPROACH without any form of violence and hostility as been portrayed....swipha
are peace loving and believe strongly on dialogue.

Swipha Management later scheduled for a meeting with the CANMPSSAN National executives and Branch executives on 11th January 2018 at Sheraton hotels. After the fact finding meeting as stated by their Lawyer, they decided to shut down the company the next day 12th January 2018.
On this note the staff of swiss pharma nigeria Ltd are grateful for the Investments of Biogaran in swipha...
The staff are ever willing to do everything with their power to bring back swipha to its glory days...this they are already doing...the sales update for the past months since they took over speaks for itself.

The staff did it in the past to become the 1st WHO cGMP certified company in Nigeria and the 1st ISO certified company in West Africa.

Once again, we reiterate that we are ever willing to do everything with our professional prowess to make swipha stand again but that our resolve cannot fly in an unfriendly environment full of anti labour issues.

We are willing to resolve all issues amicably in a round table discussion.

Finally, the rule of collective bargaining and Win-Win procedures have always been at the minds of swipha staff.

Please lets note the following;
1. The sit down approach was accepted by the management.
2. This struggle is spearheaded by all swipha staff, after they had a Congress Resolution.

Thank you and God bless
Long live biogaran
Long live swipha
Long live Nigeria

All these useless Lebanese turning our countrymen to slaves ought to be stoned to death.

The labour ministry is not living up to its responsibilities like all government ministries and agencies. What a shame!

Hmmn, Lebanese and Indian managers are usually slave drivers and thrifty.

Guess the Nigerian folks had to do something

Hmmmm. . Lebanese.those people are heartless to the core

Lalasticlala, front page things.

I hate lebanese

Fear any company headed by Lebanese.
Those guys are the worst set of people to work with.
Unfortunately, our government is either dead or docile to matters like this.

Shithole country.

What a useless post? Those who give a Bleep aint here.

The reason these Lebanese guys keep humiliating we Nigerians in our own country is because our government is insensitive to our plight. So, they know that Nigerian government can never intervene in matters like this!

Swipha Swinol that year sha....

very bad