DRAMA AS TEXTILE WORKERS DEMAND PAY

MATSAPHA – There was drama at Chinese Cargo Investments (textile factory) as workers demanded their salary from their employer.

Chinese Cargo Investments is located at Matsapha Industrial Site and employs about 200 emaSwati. According to the aggrieved workers, they were currently on what they termed informal layoff as some of them were verbally informed not to come to work last Monday, while others last reported to work on Tuesday. They said they were told that the company would recall them when it received orders. They said their payday was on Friday, but they were not paid.  Following that they did not receive their salaries last Friday, they reported for work on Monday with the aim of meeting the employer over their salaries.

Audience

They said they waited for the employer by the gate and when he attempted  to exit the factory, they closed the gate and demanded to have an audience with him. However, they claimed that he refused and called some of the supervisors to remove them from the gate. After leaving the factory, they alleged that the management team told them that the employer had ordered them to write letters which the workers would submit to their landlords. In the letters, the management apologised to the landlords for the inconvenience as it had failed to pay its employees their salaries. It said it would pay them on Friday, February 9, 2024. However, the workers who were found picketing in the company premises, said their landlords did not want letters, but money. They said their fear was that they might lock them out of their houses. They alleged that this was not the first time that the company delayed paying their salaries and would now approach the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to look into their concerns. They claimed that the company was allegedly not remitting their monies to Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) and that it was purportedly not paying them overtime for working on weekends.

Meanwhile, efforts of getting a comment from the employer proved futile as he was constantly reported to be out of the office. Later on, the cellphone of the officer who promised to connect this publication to the employer rang unanswered. The last call was made at 6:30pm on Monday. Again, this publication contacted the Human Resources Officer Mandla Mdluli, but his mobile phone rang unanswered for the better part of yesterday afternoon. Another officer from the company, whose number was written on the letters which were meant for the landlords, said he could only talk about the matter to the landlords, not the media.

Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland (ATUSWA) Secretary General Wonder Mkhonza said all along, they had been calling upon government to make sure that all investors should have security for wages (money equivalent to workers’ salaries for two months) as per the law. He said if this company had security for wages, the employees would not be in this predicament,. On another note, Mkhonza called upon the employer to pay the salaries of the workers immediately, instead of writing letters to the landlords. He said this was because the landlords might not consider the letters it since they did not have a contract or lease agreement with the company.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: