Former workers of Kapiri Mposhi District Council have appealed to government to intervene in the non-payment of their pension and terminal benefits by the local authority.
The 36 retirees and administrators of estates for deceased former council workers, who stormed ZANIS in Kapiri Mposhi today, complained that the council has failed to pay them their retirement and retrenchment packages for close to eight years now.
The group, led by Kapiri Mposhi branch Zambia Local Authorities Retirees and Pensioners Association (ZLARPA) chairperson, Joshua Choolo and his secretary, Henry Ngoma, said the former workers have failed to make a decent living because of the delay in paying them their benefits.
The former workers complained that they have failed to send their children to school because of lack of funds.
The pensioners, retirees and deceased workers are owed monies in leave days, long service bonuses and repatriation allowances.
Speaking on behalf of the affected former workers, Mr Choolo said the local authority has failed to pay them, saying the council insists it has no money to pay them every time they inquire about their packages.
Mr Choolo said most retirees’ children have since dropped out of school because their parents have failed to pay for their school user fees.
He appealed to President Michael Sata to come to their aid.
But Kapiri Mposhi District Council Secretary, Mpande Hamwende, said the local authority was still waiting for funds from the central government to settle all outstanding retirement packages for the former workers at the council.
Mr Hamwende said the council owes the former workers over KR4 million in retrenchment, retirement and pension benefits.
The CS said the local authority has been paying the former workers from its local revenue but that it has failed because the amounts involved were beyond its capacity to pay all the amounts.
He said early this year the council received KR200, 000 from central government which it divided amongst all the affected former workers.
Mr Hamwende appealed to the former workers and their families to be patient because government was still committed to settling their packages.
ZANIS
I hope the govt will look into the plight of ex zamtel employees who have attained the normal retirement age of 55 from as far back as 2010 ZSIC-LIFE the pension managers can not give any reason it has failed to pay despite it having received all the monies in full from the sale of ZAMTEL to LAP GREEN it would appear that the money was misapplied.