Workers at Unilever’s Ivory Coast subsidiary are accusing the multinational company of violating a longstanding collective bargaining agreement by refusing to guarantee severance pay in the event of job losses following the sale of its local operations. According to internal documents and legal representatives, employees fear they will be left without protection once the transfer of ownership is complete.
Unilever, headquartered in the United Kingdom, is in the process of selling its entire shareholding in Unilever Côte d’Ivoire to a local consortium led by Société de Distribution de Toutes Marchandises Côte d’Ivoire, known as SDTM. The Ivorian unit, which employs around 160 people, handles both domestic and international brands. However, according to a company memo dated 8 April, SDTM will only acquire the domestic brands, leaving the future of the international product lines in the country uncertain.
This development has sparked concern among staff who have staged demonstrations at Unilever’s offices in Abidjan since 25 April. Their anxiety is rooted in the declining turnover of the business in recent years and fears that the separation from Unilever’s international portfolio will result in job cuts once the sale is finalised, reportedly by 20 June.
Central to the dispute is a collective bargaining agreement dating back to 2004, which was reaffirmed by management in 2007. It stipulates that in the event of redundancies linked to the disposal of the company’s operations, affected employees are entitled to severance pay amounting to one month of gross salary for each year of service, capped at 18 months. It also promises up to six months of medical coverage. The agreement remains valid, according to Soualiho Lassomann Diomande, a lawyer from Lex Ways representing the workers.
In a meeting held at the Labour Inspectorate in Abidjan on 25 April, Unilever Côte d’Ivoire’s head, Arona Diop, stated that SDTM would determine the employment terms going forward and that the collective agreement would no longer apply. A spokesperson for Unilever declined to comment on the agreement directly but confirmed the company is proceeding with a share sale rather than a transfer of operations. In a statement issued to Reuters, Unilever said that because employment contracts are not being terminated, severance pay is not applicable.
Workers and their legal representatives have strongly contested this stance. According to three current employees, international brands contribute over 60 percent of the unit’s turnover, which reached 34.6 billion CFA francs in 2023. The concern is that with the exclusion of these key brands from the transaction, significant restructuring or job losses are inevitable.
Diomande pointed to Article 16.6 of the Ivorian Labour Code, which states that any significant change to the terms of an employment contract requires the explicit consent of the employee. He argued that Unilever’s refusal to honour the collective agreement represents a disregard for workers’ rights and exposes them to substantial uncertainty.
Employees who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said they had requested Unilever to ensure severance provisions and employment guarantees for two years following the sale. This is one year less than the three-year employment protections Unilever granted to approximately 6,000 workers in Europe and the United Kingdom as part of a separate deal involving the spin-off of its ice cream division. That agreement was widely praised and exceeded the legal requirements in those jurisdictions.
According to both Diomande and two Unilever employees, the terms promised in Ivory Coast were already more generous than those mandated under local law. Data from the International Labour Organization’s EPLex database shows that Ivorian workers are legally entitled to severance equivalent to 30 percent of their gross monthly wage for each year of service up to five years, rising to 35 percent between six and ten years, and 40 percent for service beyond that.
Unilever announced early last year that it would cut 7,500 jobs globally as part of a major restructuring aimed at saving approximately 800 million euros. Diomande argued that the contrast in treatment between European and Ivorian workers is stark and unjustified.
He described Unilever’s actions as discriminatory and highlighted the imbalance in power and protection between workers in Europe and those in Africa. The decision to deny Ivory Coast workers the same assurances offered elsewhere, he said, amounts to negative discrimination.
“This is a serious injustice,” Diomande said.
Employees continue to call for equal treatment and are urging Unilever to honour its commitments. Whether the company will revisit its position before the sale is finalised remains to be seen.
