Dismissed Morupule B labourers demand medical exams
Bonte Seepi | Friday January 8, 2016 15:03
They complained that they worked in a high-risk area where there is high voltage electricity. They further complained that they worked with fibreglass, coal dust, limestone, silica dust, smelly paints and all sorts of chemicals and at heights, yet they were not provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) nor risk allowance nor medical checkups.
CNEEC is a company engaged by the Botswana Power Corporations (BPC) at Morupule B power plant.
In December, the employees downed tools protesting against lack of PPE, low salaries, poor working conditions and being forced to work without contracts, among others.
According to the employees, on December 24, last year their supervisors called a meeting.
“That is when they paid us our December salaries, leave pays and severance pays for the December month only.
From there, we agreed with the company that we shall break for the festive holidays and shall come back on January 4, when we will be provided with the PPE. They took our contact numbers and overall sizes.
“So we went for the holidays knowing that everything was fine,” said one employee who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The aggrieved employees also told Mmegi that before December 24 they held another meeting with NEPEC 11 bosses, BPC managing director and the safety, health and environment manager where they reached an agreement that workers shall be given PPE this month and there will be no job losses.
“To our surprise, when we reported for work on January 4, the supervisors chose employees randomly and gave them PPE and they were told to resume duty. Thirty of us were left in the lurch and told that there is no work anymore, hence retrenchment.
“It seems like they targeted those who have a better understanding of their working conditions and can talk about their rights. They then told us that since they have our numbers, they will contact us whenever there were posts in the company. Rumours are rife that new employees have been hired in the company,” said another employee anonymously.
Now that they have been retrenched, the employees demanded that they be paid for their off days and be taken for medical checkups to determine if they have not been affected by the conditions they worked under.
“Medical tests were never conducted on us when we began working in the company, but that is not our fault. We are certain that we are not healthy as we started working for the company. No mine will accept to hire us the way we are now. So we demand that NEPEC 11 do medical tests on us and compensate us. Some of us have more than five years working there so we also demand our leave pays,” they said.
The translator and secretariat at NEPEC 11, Jia Zhu dismissed the accusations levelled against the company. She said they did not fire the employees because of the December strike, but because the job left to be done is small therefore there was no need for many employees hence retrenchment. “We have finished the most of our work in the power plant, so we don’t need many employees anymore,” said Jia.
She further dismissed accusations that they have hired new employees saying the fact that they have given employees their reference letters really showed that they had no problems with the ex-employees. She also could not comment on the issue of medical exams saying that her company never did such even when they hired the employees.
Meanwhile, the matter is yet to be settled by the Palapye labour office and has been set for hearing for February 29. The employees demand compensation for unfair dismissal, medical exams and remuneration for their off days.