The Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is planning a major protest against the e-mobility and vehicle financing company, Moove Africa. This was disclosed in several letters by the Chairperson of the Lagos state NLC, Comrade Funmi Sessi and seen by Technext.
The letters were addressed to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Moshood Jimoh, the Director of the Lagos State Command of the Department of State Services( DSS), Jide Adisa, and the Lagos State Commissioner of Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi.
According to Sessi, the protest, tagged the “Mother of All Protests”, will take place at Moove Africa’s office. The action is aimed at tackling the mobility company’s continuous anti-labour practices, causing untold hardships to their drivers.
Sessi noted that the protest is specifically targeted at Moove’s 100 per cent increase in remittance for drivers on its drive-to-own scheme. She added that despite writing to seek dialogue, Moove Africa has refused to acknowledge and reverse its unjust increment of the remittance on its drive-to-own scheme.
See also: Moove’s $100m fund: Is Uber backing a partner or empowering drivers’ ‘oppression’?
Furthermore, she decried that the company has continued the unlawful collection and seizure of vehicles, particularly the Suzuki Espresso and Alto vehicles, from drivers affiliated with the congress.
According to her, the seizures were without due process or justification, thereby causing distress to the drivers.
“These actions have brought untold hardship on hardworking drivers who are already struggling under the prevailing economic realities. The company’s high-handedness and disregard for dialogue have left us with no option but to exercise our democratic and constitutional right to peaceful protest as enshrined in Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Comrade Sessi said.
She further noted that the protest is intended to demand the immediate reversal of all oppressive policies by Moove Africa, as well as justice for drivers who have been wronged. As such, the protest will be peaceful, orderly and conducted in accordance with the law.
A back story: Moove’s 100% remittance increase
In September, Technext reported that Moove Africa had increased its drive-to-own weekly remittance from 56,400 naira to 112,200 naira, a 100 per cent increase. Interestingly, of the 120,200 naira new weekly remittance, only 39,766 naira covers the actual vehicle loan repayment, a mere 33 per cent.
Read here: Moove drivers protest 100% increase in weekly remittance, shut down operations
According to a breakdown seen by Technext, aside from the 39,766 naira for loan cost, there is also a weekly maintenance cost of 9,966 naira, despite a weekly repairs fund of 16,343 naira, a weekly insurance cost of 2,885 naira, a paltry health insurance cost of 505 naira, and a handling cost of 42,735 naira which left drivers wondering why the handling cost is more than the loan cost.
While the drivers had protested at the time, their protests hadn’t brought the desired change. With the NLC by their side, perhaps there would be a change this time.
Lending its voice to the NLC’s proposed protest, the Lagos State Council of the Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON) described it as both a protest and a picketing action. In a statement to Technext by its secretary, Comrade Yusuf Bamidele, the union accused Moove Africa of continuously exploiting drivers.
“Moove Africa has continuously engaged in exploitative practices by recycling drivers and manipulating remittance systems as a means of repossessing vehicles from hardworking drivers. These actions are unfair, oppressive, and a direct attack on the welfare and rights of app-based transport workers in Lagos State,” the secretary said.
He further called on all e-hailing drivers in the state operating across other platforms like Bolt, Uber, InDrive, LagRide, or SimpliRide to come out en masse in solidarity with fellow drivers facing this injustice.
