BMWU Condemns Mupane Over Pay Slash
Chakalisa Dube | Monday May 25, 2020 15:20
Late last week, Mupane general manager, Cedric Sam wrote a letter to the union leadership highlighting that employees who have been unable to come to work as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19 will instead receive 75% of their pay.
The intention of the mine has reportedly irked some of its employees.
“The majority of staff have returned to work and they are not considered to be on suspension. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions a minority of employees have not been able to return to work and as a result the suspension of their contracts still stands,” read part of Mupane management letter to employees.
The letter further said the company was compassionate and understood that the employees had obligations and therefore, committed to paying all employees on suspension for the month of May 2020 as follows: 75% of their basic salaries and 100% housing allowances.
The mine paid the employees their salaries for April although it was initially said that their contracts had been suspended. Over the past two months, mines around the country were permitted by government to maintain 70% operational capacity due to the extreme social distancing protocols meant to guard against the spread of COVID-19.
“Employees who have been considered on duty or returned to work throughout this period, will be paid as normal for the month of May, even though the majority have not worked a full month, that is employees who have either been actively on duty throughout, working from home and on annual leave,” added parts of the letter from the mine’s boss.
The recent developments at Mupane have strongly irked the union leadership.
“Paying the affected employees 75% of their salaries will be a serious breach of contract by the employer.
The employees were ready to provide work for the month of May. They were forced by circumstances to stay at home. That is why we believe the employees are entitled to their full salaries for the month of May,” Maenge Maenge the national deputy general secretary of BMWU retorted.
Maenge said although some operations at Mupane have been affected, overall production has not been impacted by the lockdown. This has also been corroborated by various sources at the mine.
“We have written to the mine opposing the proposal to pay employees 75%. Should the mine pay the affected employees 75% we will inevitably take action and such action might involve going the legal route,” Maenge told The Monitor. Recently, some companies had indicated that they would not pay their employees for the month of April owing to the lockdown.
They were, however, forced to rescind their initial positions following widespread criticism from the media, government and members of the public. The government is also supporting companies with a wage subsidy to cushion them against the impacts of COVID-19. The subsidy will last until June.
At the time of going to press Sam could not be reached to provide more clarity in relation to the letter purportedly written. He was also yet to respond to a text message sent to him.