Thursday, March 28, 2024

Shamenda orders Intercontinental to reinstate 115 suspended workers

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Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda (right) and Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) General Secretary Roy Mwaba
Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda (right) and Zambia Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) General Secretary Roy Mwaba

Minister of Labour Fackson Shamenda has directed management of Intercontinental Hotel to immediately withdraw the letters of suspension for the 115 workers suspended by the company.

Mr Shamenda said he takes strong exception to the decision by the management of Intercontinental Hotel to suspend 115 workers following an industrial dispute.

The Minister stated that any undue and unnecessary job losses through redundancies or dismissals shall not be entertained in order to preserve the jobs.

He further directed the union and management to demonstrate leadership and amicably resolve and conclude the outstanding issues in the 2014 negotiations for salaries and other conditions of service in order to maintain industrial harmony.

Mr Shamenda said in statement availed to ZANIS that government stands ready to support both local and foreign investments in the country and will not tolerate acrimonious working relations.

He stated that Government’s resolve to support such investments was demonstrated recently by the level of business given to Intercontinental Hotel during the Jubilee celebrations and funeral of latePresident Michael Sata .

“It is the expectation of government that business owners shall give sufficient mandate to management teams charged with the running of those businesses, ‘he said.

Mr Shamenda said it is therefore expected that there shall be no departure from the directive and normal operations of the hotel should resume immediately and that the ministry looks forward to regular updates on the negotiation process.

He said the Patriotic Front government was voted into office on the platform of pro-poor policies and job creation to lift the Zambian people out of poverty.

17 COMMENTS

  1. Hypocrisy…..when you (government) fire nurses at UTH it’s fine but when Inters does the same its ok. This is nonsense

    • I think you are felling to understand the conditions which these guys work under. In the case of nurses, they were to be blamed coz despite GRZ increasing their salaries for all civil servants, them they wanted greater increment than their friends. This was so provoking to the extent that other civil servants never supported the nurses for their selfishness. So please analyse issues in a sober manner.

    • This what happens when you dinosaurs in leadership. ..what powers has he got to order a private entity.. ..the shambolic days of the incompetent deadwood Sata are long gone!!

  2. Its hurts to see that the cries of other employees in the country are acted upon immediately when some of us with worse problems can not be heard by anyone at the labour office.mindeco small mines ltd employees have been pushing for their 22 months of unpaid salaries & redundancy packages through the labour office for a very long time but no help has come our way.our directors have now taken advantage of the situation & are issuing threats like; we’ll just liquidate the company so that you lose all your money since govt(labour office) has failed to help you.where else can we go if we can get help from you.please you need to help us Ba shamenda.we are along sheki sheki rd plot 1605.

  3. But government did the same with the nurses and Mr.Shamenda was responsible and they fired nurses. What’s the difference? The are only following an example shown to them by government.

  4. that is good move mr Shamenda , u are doing your job, but your ministry is not working so hard , what do i mean , they are just siting in their offices while employees are surffering in many companies, eg Zambeef Products plc is one of bigest companies we have in zambia, but it has decleared wage freez, all generial workers have not been their salaries increased for the past three years , not because the Company has no financial capacity to increase the employees’ salaries , because the Top UNION LEADERS are corrupted ,are being bribed , they are busy working together with zambeef management , the management has even bought a car for them. . we (employees) we need to hold elections for top UNION LEADERS in ZAMBEEF PRODUCTS PLC,coz they have overstayed since its inception.

  5. The comments above have articulated the hypocrisy of Shamenda and his government, especially that Shamenda. For them it’s donchi kubeba all the way. They will ignore their own policies to the extent that no one understands what they stand for. And yet they are supposed to be our leaders, not rulers.
    The Dangote issue is hardly forgotten and he is up to more controversy. Does he own Intercontinental or Dangote? And why does Shamenda reduce himself to a labour officer? If that is where his competencies lie then he should swap roles with one of those highly competent Labour Officers in Lusaka who can definitely perform better than him as Minister of Labour.

  6. Shamenda , that’s the way to go. These guys will be testing you as Sata whom they feared is no more. Its up to GRZ and PF to show Zambians that it was not only Sata who made you work. You are being tested and this is the time for you to work.

    Peace and Prosperity To Mother Zambia.

  7. what happens if the father in a household is ALWAYS insulting? The children too take to insulting as a normal thing. Sata, Kasonde and PF fired 400 nurses at UTH, NCH and KCH. This ***** was very mute. Where does he get the audacity to stand firm now??. USELESS, RIP PF on January, 20/11/2014

  8. The govt is to be blamed for all the mess with unions&investors.Doing business in Zambia is very expensive.Production costs are the highest in the region&so every sensible investor looks@avenues of generating as much income as possible&cutting production costs.Govt isn’t transparent with what it does with all the revenue it collects from investors&so why would you expect that from an investor?Govt is the no:1 casual worker employer.So why shouldn’t other companies also do like wise?Stop imposing threats on company owners when you don’t support them with any incentives.Am so fed up of untruthful politicians & investors!

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