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The company’s managing director, Ishmael Nshakazhogwe said he was not aware of the letters of retrenchment though his name and signature appears in them. “I don’t know anything about the retrenched employees. I believe that if they have such letters with them, it means that they were not working according to the contract agreement,” said Nshakazhogwe. He refused to say why the employees were not given notice before they were told not to turn up for work.
Ditswaganong Olefile, a retren-ched employee said that since July, the company has been paying them less money without explanation. “Some days when we get to work, we are told that there is no cement and we should go home and come the next day. At the end of the month, they deduct money from our wages claiming that we were absent,” said Olefile.
She added that they often work until late in the night but are never paid overtime. She revealed that they worked under harsh conditions and they are not provided with protective clothing.
After getting the letters, they reported the matter to the Labour Department which wrote a letter to the company management instructing them to resolve the dispute. The employees said that their wish is to be given their retrenchment packages before they leave because they have had enough humiliation from the management.
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