I really want to know what our Laws say concerning foreigners being in charge of HR in companies operating locally in Nigeria. I have observed some activities in some Muti-National Companies with foreign HR managers that are quite disturbing to say the least.

Prior to this write-up, I had been hearing about draconian policies being enforced (especially by Chinese employers) on their factory workers but never had I come across such in a fully corporate environment.

Here we have a Foreigner as HR who has reduced maternity leave from 3 months to 1 month. In actual fact, I gather it was actually 3 weeks but after appeals from the nursing mother, the HR allowed an extra week. Failure to comply would result in automatic sack.

Already, this same HR person is working hard towards removing annual leave allowance just the same way the 13th month allowance was removed last year. He has taken away other benefits such as official cars for locals but every single foreigner has a car attached to him. Same for common official phone lines. On a whole, locals earn only a fraction of what the foreginers earn yet we (locals) do all the work. Every manager position is gradually being filled by people from his country with little or no skill/experience for the jobs! Locals are employed only as Drivers, Cleaners, Office Assistants etc. The company pays 100% of government (individual) taxes for the foreigners but for locals...u guess is as good as mine, ZERO. What's really baffling is that this is a business that rakes in billions of Naira annually!

I desperately want to believe that there must be somewhere in our Labour Laws that protects helpless locals from these kinds of maltreatment IN THEIR OWN FATHERLAND!

Calling on any HR professional or Lawyer for advice on how to tackle this matter.