More than 50 workers from Grupo Abayak fired, haven’t received their settlements after more than eight months

After a little over 8 months, ABC Construcciones y Proyectos (ABC Constructions and Projects), an Equatoguinean company that forms part of the Abayak group of companies, SA refuses to pay settlements  to 60 ex- employees.

The information forms part of a series of documents that Diario Rombe has had access to. Unofficial sources from the Delegation of Work in Bioko Norte, denounce impunity on the part of the group of companies belonging to President of the Republic, Teodoro Obiang Ngema, his wife, Constancia Mangue Nsue Okomo and their son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue.

On September 29th, 2020, the deputy director  of the Abayak Group of Companies, SA, Angela Mbasogo Mba Eyang, informed the workers of the decision made by ABC Construcciones y Proyectos to terminate the employment contracts of its 60 workers, many of whom have been working at the company for more than 9 years.

In the letter addressed to the employees to which Diario Rombe has had access, Abayak, SA motivates the termination of the contracts alleging the lack of «performance and results at work in recent months has been insufficient. Likewise, there has been an inability to adequately perform the functions and tasks assigned to the position he occupies». These facts, according to Abayak’s human resources department, «constitute a serious and culpable breach of contract of their obligations to the company».

From unfair dismissals to conciliation proceedings

According to the same unofficial sources – of the North Bioko Provincial Delegation of the Ministry of Labor, Employment Promotion and Social Security – consulted by Diario Rombe, they consider these dismissals as unfair due to the circumstances and ways in which they have been carried out, «some workers were enjoying their vacations when they were unfairly dismissed».

Two and a half months after the dismissals were executed, on December 18, 2020, the Provincial Delegation of Bioko Norte presided over a conciliation meeting at the request of the dismissed workers against the company ABC Construcciones y Proyectos, represented by the lawyer Narciso Nguema.

In the conciliation, which concluded with an agreement between the parties, the Abayak Group of companies agreed to pay the dismissed workers their severance payments in full. This was reflected in the conciliation minutes, according to which the Labor Delegation undertook to calculate the severance pay corresponding to each dismissed worker as part of the unfair dismissals.

ABC Construcciones y Proyectos fails to comply with the agreement

Since December 2020 and continuously, the Abayak Group led by Pastor Hassan Obiang Mangue, son of the President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and the First Lady, Constancia Mangue Nsue Okomo, has not paid the settlements to the former workers.

The company is also not informing the former employees of the reason for the defaults on payments, «nobody in the ministry understands how a company that earns millions of dollars a year refuses to pay the severance payments to the workers. In the Ministry of Labor we have done everything possible to protect the rights of these workers, but we do not have the authority to demand that the company of the head of state comply with the agreements that they themselves signed», reports an official who has asked to remain anonymous.