Ebony employees strike over shocking pay cuts
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday May 29, 2020 18:41
This hair affair erupted when supervisors told the employees that they would get a measly P600 at month end. The workers wanted to know how the employer arrived at P600.
There was palpable fear amongst the employees, who nevertheless revealed anonymously that they were told in plain language they will be fired if ever they let the cat out about their plight. Despite that the employees, said, they were paid P1,200 in April.
“Our employer says Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) wage subsidy for this month will be paid late and therefore he is doing us a favour by paying us P600. He said BURS gave him money to pay each employee P1,000 during the month of April and the company added P200 to arrive at P1,200. Our concern is that even our rentals are not P600 and we would not even have money to come to work. Again the managing director does not want to address us. We are paid P60.77 per day. We were told that those who do not want to work should resign and go back home,” the employee said. Another employee remarked that one of the supervisors threatened the employees saying that they will fire anyone who complained.
Mmegi learnt on Tuesday that the employer had terminated 35 contracts for those who were not on permanent basis. Another issue that employees were complaining about was that the company had not met the required standards for reopening.
“We are queuing to wash our hands in one basin and everyone is using that one basin, which could increase the chances of the virus spreading from one person to another,” the employee said.
The company’s managing director, Nanyeno Cho, said the company has been affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic since the sales of braiding hair have gone down.
“I have explained to the supervisors that the wage subsidy from BURS will be paid late and we are still negotiating with employees on how much I can afford. I will pay what I can afford,” he said.
When pressed on the issue of the P600 pay, the managing director claimed that he has told the supervisors that he would pay the employees the money that they had worked for including the P1,200.
“Maybe the supervisors did not relay the message correctly. I said I can pay them P1,200 and full salary in June despite that they will be working in shifts, which means both groups will not be working continuously for the whole month,” Cho said.
When questioned on the issue of how they managed to qualify to be given certificate to operate, Cho said, “(The Gaborone City) Council has inspected us and they do not have a problem with people sharing a single hand wash basin”. Presidential COVID-19 Task Force coordinator, Dr Kereng Masupu said it would be shocking if over 200 people would be allowed to share just one washing hand basin. “I do not understand why council has given the factory an operating certificate. Councils are supposed to be our eyes,” Masupu said.