Times Of Swaziland: COPS CALLED AS 600 TEXTILE WORKERS DOWN TOOLS

COPS CALLED AS 600 TEXTILE WORKERS DOWN TOOLS
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Sibusiso Zwane on 10/09/2024 08:57:00


MATSAPHA - Police were called after about 600 textile workers downed tools.
The workers are demanding answers over payment of the three days on which they
did not work, as per the employer’s notice. According to a source, The Great
Springs, a textile factory at Matsapha Industrial Site, the employer approached
the workers with a request that they should work at least three Saturdays, so as
not to work on the week of September 2, 2024 to Friday, September 6, 2024. The
source said this was because Monday and Friday were public holidays. He said the
employer told them that he was making the proposal to avoid laying them off.
However, according to the source, the workers refused to work on the Saturdays.
After that, he said when they were about to knock off on August 30, 2024, they
found a notice informing them that they should come back to work next Monday.
Indeed, he said they did not work last week Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Negotiations
He said the shop stewards engaged the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and
it intervened. He said after engaging the employer, the officials from the
Ministry of Labour and Social Security informed them that they should report to
work yesterday and they did. While they were at work yesterday, he said they
demanded to know if the employer would pay them for the three days. He said
unfortunately for them, they found that the employer was overseas to negotiate
orders.  As a result, when they came back after their lunch hour, they downed
tools. He said they also wanted assurance that the employer agreed that they
should report for work, which would confirm that they would be paid.  He said
since the employer was not around to confirm such, they decided to down tools.
Meanwhile, the Human Resources Officer, Bonisile Dlamini, said the company’s
request to have the workers work three Saturdays was meant to assist them to
avoid being placed on layoffs.  She said this would to their advantage.  She
said after they refused to work on the Saturdays, the company applied for
layoffs, because it was facing a shortage of orders. She said the Ministry of
Labour and Social Security approved the layoffs.  However, she highlighted that
the company failed to notify the workers on time and it approached the Ministry
of Labour and Social Security to apply for exemption, which was granted, thus
the notice informing the workers about the layoffs was posted in the afternoon
of their last day at work -August 30, 2024.  After that, she said they were
engaged by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security official when the workers
were at home last week and the employer agreed to recall the workers to work,
purportedly, because of the confusion which was caused by the late notice.
She said yesterday the workers reported for work and operations went well before
the lunch hour. However, after lunch, they downed tools because they did not get
the answers they were seeking as the employer was unreachable. This publication
gathered that later in the afternoon, the workers started singing and dancing to
political songs and chanted slogans in the factory.  Following that, the company
called the police, who responded promptly. The source also said the Labour
official came in the late afternoon and urged the workers to report for work
today. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Senior Superintendent
Phindile Vilakati confirmed that the police were called to The Great Springs
yesterday afternoon. She said the law enforcers went there to enforce law and
order.