Workers accuse NRH contracted company of cheating

Pini Bothoko | Friday June 6, 2014 14:54

The company, Mercury Capital trading as Clean Time Cleaning Services was contracted by the Ministry of Health (MoH) to offer cleaning and porter services at the hospital in April this year.  The company took over the employees from previous companies that had been performing the same services at the referral hospital.

 Among a litany of accusations levelled against the company by the employees was that they were forced to work 12 hours contrary to the stipulated eight hours in the contract.

The employees also claim that ever since they started work they have been working the 12-hour shifts without being paid for the additional four hours.

“They told us that instead of overtime they would give us off days. Surprisingly, when you try and take those off days they decline, and if you just go, they treat you as absent,” said one employee who preferred to remain anonymous.

He said that they were also promised to have weekend wages, which also has not happened.

The employees also allege that the company is deducting money from their salaries for uniforms and that the very salaries have been cut from the P1,500 as stipulated in their respective contracts to P936.

From the P936 salary, another P267 or more is deducted, which the company said was for the uniforms and safety clothes.

One of the employees who is in the cleaning service, told Mmegi that she was to earn P1,500 monthly only to receive P936 at month-end and that there was a further deduction of P267 that the company said was for uniform and other safety clothes.

“They started to deduct from my salary ever since the first month, though I do not have a complete uniform. When I signed the contract, I did not know that they meant to deduct so much money from our pay,” said the employee who opted for anonymity for fear of victimisation.

She said that the previous company that had employed them for the last two years was not paying a lot, but at least they were not deducting money for uniform.

She said that ever since she started working, the company had not provided her with shoes yet they were deducting money for them.  She said she still uses shoes from the previous company.

Another employee alleges that the company has been deducting money for overalls from her salary though she never received the overalls from the company.

Others said that they were using their own pair of trousers or some pieces of their clothing but money was being deducted from their salaries as if they had received a complete uniform. 

Employees found at NRH by the Mmegi team were crying foul that the company, was underpaying them, deducting money from their salaries for the uniforms, and that they work more hours than agreed without being paid overtime.

The workers also allege that they were tricked into signing their employment contracts.

The employees said that they have had enough threatening to lay down tools this week as they claimed to have not received responses from their employer concerning their queries.

At the hospital the employees were milling about saying they were looking for answers.  The employees had apparently given up on the people who had allegedly been delegated to give them answers.

“They often play hide-and-seek with us because when we need them, they are nowhere to be found.

We do not even know the person that is supposed to really help us because everyone says that they are bosses. We do not know who they are. We want answers,” he said.

In their quest to seek redress, some employees trooped to the offices of the Department of Labour to report what they termed ‘ill-treatment’ by the company.

The workers said the department responded by issuing them with letters calling them for a face-to-face, one-on-one meeting with their bosses at the labour offices today.

A woman contacted at the company head office in Gaborone, Sheila who declined to provide a last name, argued that the employees signed a contract, which contained a clause about the deductions.

“They have signed a contract with a clause that there will be deductions from their salaries for uniforms. We do not know what the confusion is all about. We want to protect the uniform of the company.

“At the moment there are about 33 people who have quit the job since we engaged them in April and they have not returned the uniform,” she said.

Sheila said that the agreement was that at the end of their contract employees would be given their money back if they have not lost the company uniform.

She added that since they were still on probation there were only a few employees who have not been given full uniforms and the deduction for those uniforms have not yet commenced.

Except for Sheila, no one at Clean Time was ready to respond to Mmegi enquiries. 

A woman who picked up the phone at the offices provided a mobile number of the company’s director, which was off air when contacted.

Sheila said that their employees were all working on shift and there was no overtime as some employees claimed, and they have not received any complaints about overtime yet.

Sheila also defended the company saying that the employees were just being unreasonable with their demands and queries.

Efforts to solicit a comment on the issue from NRH hospital on Wednesday afternoon were unsuccessful as the phone rang unanswered.