Kgathi�s former employees cry foul over payments

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday November 21, 2017 17:06

The workers complain that they have not been paid when their services were terminated, while others say they received way below what they signed for.

“When we got employed by Blue Security Solutions, we signed an agreement to be paid P5.67 per hour. We were working in different places; Thamaga, Gaborone and Moshupa. The security company was engaged by Choppies retailer. Our problem is that we had worked for eight weeks, but we got P1,600 instead of P2,900 as per our calculations. We understand Choppies terminated the contract with the security company,” the employees representative, Kagiso Tebonyane said.

On being contacted, Kgathi admitted there were problems, but insisted that “I have no problem paying the workers”.

He said all was on track until the company had problems with their client. “The only problem arose when Choppies was paying us very late. The company was therefore forced to terminate the contract with Choppies. I can bring evidence to that effect. Some employees were paid per hours they worked for,” Kgathi said.

In fact, the company insists all but four of their 18 former employees were paid.

A supervisor at Blue Security Solutions, Gagoope Tachiwa said they had paid 14 employees out of 18 after they returned their uniforms, which they had requested them to do.

“We are not going to pay anyone who has not returned our uniform. The reasons are that we can’t keep on buying uniforms for new employees and we are trying to avoid a situation where one gets involved in crime while wearing our uniform. Sometimes police realise late that the person is not working for such a security company. We have paid our former employees the hours they have worked for and if they have an issue, then they are free to come to us so that we cross-check those out,” Tachiwa said.

But Tebonyane insists that when they were employed, the issue of uniform never arose. He said there was no agreement that each employee is required to return their uniform before they get paid.

Tebonyane acknowledged that they were not required to contribute a 50% to the purchasing of their uniform, as is the practice in other security companies.  He refuted the company’s claim that they were given letters to indicate the company’s policy demanding employees to return uniform at the end of their employment.

Tebonyane also stated that they were also promised to work for six months, but were surprised when, without any warning, they were informed that they could not continue working.

“Our employer should have informed us what the problem was, if it was something beyond his control. But when we complained that our payment was less (than what was agreed with the company), our supervisor told us that we can go to the Labour Department to report,” Tebonyane said. Tachiwa stated that the noise around the payments is nothing but a ploy by people who want to tarnish the company’s name for political reasons.

“I have given them letters requesting that they should return the uniforms at the termination of their employment contracts,” he said.

With the new law that was recently passed in Parliament, security companies will be forced to provide their employees with uniforms which bears their names. If a company fails, it will be fined about P1,000 or to a prison term not exceeding three months in default of payment.