Frustrated Unitrans employees down tools

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Wednesday November 5, 2008 00:00

This happened yesterday morning after employees claimed to have been pleading with the management since 2000 to increase their basic salaries and provide allowance for travel.

Frustrated employees at the Unitrans site were seated at the tuckshop having their breakfast and all the trucks were parked.

Employees said they wanted to be addressed on their issues by the managing director. 'If they address us now and we feel we have been taken care of and given the attention they deserve we will get into our trucks and get to work now,' said one of the employees.

This incident happens seven months after Unitrans was engaged to manage some trucks of Lobtrans to distribute fuel all over the country after that company was liquidated in February.  One of the employees said that the highest paid driver at Unitrans earns P3, 600.

'People who have been working here for several years are paid P3,500 or P3,600,' he said. He said the reason why they decided to boycott work today is because they have been complaining about salaries for a long time with no consideration from the management.

'We have to travel out of the country and go to places like Johannesburg, Mpumalanga, Pretoria and others but no matter how many days you go, you will not get meal allowances, night outs, travel allowance or cross border allowances,' he said.

He said that other people are being paid as low as P1, 800 on long distance trips. 'You do not get a cent from Unitrans when you go on a trip, which means that we have the money that we make are spent on trips instead of feeding our children at home,' he said.

Another employee said even though Unitrans pays them trip bonuses they find that it is one way of tricking them.

'Trip bonuses are whereby you are paid by kilometre when you go on trips but we do not want that bonus because it is very tricky. Usually when you are supposed to get it they will come up with an excuse like maybe you burst a tyre or you had some kind of delay on the road that was not even your fault. For reasons like that they will with hold that trip bonus,' he said.

Employees said that they have long told management that they would rather have their salaries increased or be given some kind of fixed allowances and overtime other than trips because they almost never get it.

'If they have no excuse to withhold your trip bonus, they will tax it heavily. We do not know whether a bonus is supposed to be taxed,' he added. The employees who vowed not to go back to work until their issues were addressed say that they are being treated differently from their South African colleagues.

'The guys in South Africa who do the same job as ours get all these allowances that were crying about now. A guy in South Africa makes my monthly salary in a week and we are wondering what the difference is,' he stated.

Another frustrated employee said that at first they understood that they could not get salary raises because the company had no tenders. 'We were loyal to the company that way but now Unitrans has several contracts with Chevron, BP, the mines, PPC, Total and more but they will not return the loyalty that we have always had for them,' he lamented.Besides salaries employees said that the companies oppresses them in other ways. 'When you are first hired they will give you three months but you can for several years without being confirmed while they keep extending your probation,' said another employee.

While addressing the media, employees said that they were waiting for the managing director for Unitrans, Mike Steel to come and address them from Gaborone.