By Fiona Benson Kollie
National Bureau of Concessions (NBC) Director General, Hassan S. Kiazolu, has pushed for workers benefits at Firestone Liberia as protected by law.
Kiazolu said, as much the issue of Firestone’s outsourcing may comply with its concession agreement, it was important that contractors’ benefits be protected.
He said, Firestone Liberia’s outsourcing of its plantation work may not breach its concession agreement, but maintained how the position that cuts against lawmakers’ complaint. By that, he suggested that workers who were made redundant, and brought back as contractors to keep the education, housing and medical benefits of their children.
He also acknowledged the fact that his Agency’s past reviews of concessions, mainly Firestone, was overdue, and promised that a new review of Firestone is planned for next year.
For that, he said, the process will be conducted differently, and findings will be sent to President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, and to the Legislature for further imports.
Kiazolu said, outsourcing in itself is not necessarily a violation. He pointed to provisions in the agreement that allowed Firestone to increase production, “but contracting out work falls within the framework if it raises output.”
“If they outsource, and they’re receiving more, I think it’s part of the technical activities to increase their production.” Kiazolu: “Firestone has also informed me that theft was preventing the company from meeting its projected production targets, and that it introduced outsourcing partly in response.” He said, production rose by more than 150 percent afterward.
Kiazolu said, the treatment of outsourced workers is a legitimate grievance, and workers who were made redundant, and later returned through contractual agreement, should not necessarily lose the benefits tied to their former employment, specifically education, housing, and medical care for their children.
“That’s the point of contention.”
Kiazolu said, the government should appeal to Firestone to reach common ground on how those workers are treated. Moreover, Kiazolu said, NBC did little concession review work in 2026, “because the bureau has undergone reforms, but that Firestone is now part of its planning, and next year, there will a planning process that includes the Firestone concession review and evaluation.” The review will use a 2019 assessment as its baseline, but Kiazolu said, he does not intend to repeat how earlier reviews were done.
“I don’t want to do the review under my watch like before. I will deploy people on the field, and they will go, and just bring anything and we resolve it in report.”
He stressed the need for investigators to be deployed this time, while NBC staff will conduct a preliminary test review to set out the issues to be examined, and the standards they must follow.
