Friday, March 29, 2024

ZCTU demands deportation of Intercontinental hotel Manager

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The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has called on government to immediately deport Intercontinental Hotel Assistant General Manager Michael Naber for abusing workers’ rights and threatening them with dismissals.

The union movement has called on government to reintroduce the Civil Service Management courses at the National Institute for Public Administration (NIPA) so as to inculcate knowledge on how to handle disciplinary procedures in government and parastatal institutions.

ZCTU Secretary General Cosmas Mukuka told a media briefing in Lusaka that the union is appalled by the behavior of management at Intercontinental hotel where workers have lost dignity and are working in fear due to the heavy handedness of management.

Mr. Mukuka recalled that last year, Intercontinental Hotel dismissed about 130 workers on allegations that they went on an illegal strike and it had to take the intervention of the Hotels and Catering Workers Union of Zambia and the Ministry of Labour to intervene and for 96 workers to be reinstated.

Mr. Mukuka said that workers at the hotel followed the law before going on strike by taking all steps required to call for a strike, therefore it cannot be true that workers went on an illegal strike.He added that despite a directive from the Ministry of Labour to reinstate the remaining 34 workers, management at Intercontinental hotel has been adamant.

The ZCTU Secretary General said that they have information that hotel management wants to cut the workforce from 290 to 150 workers.Mr Mukuka says ZCTU will not support any move to increase unemployment in the country because this is against government efforts of creating jobs for people.

And Mr. Mukuka has called on the Zambia Police Service in Ndola to arrest and charge a senior High Court official who slapped a general worker within the court premises.
Mr. Mukuka says the action by the High Court senior officer agitated workers at the court who are demanding that Police arrest him for assault.
He wonders why police are shielding the officer in question from facing the law.

26 COMMENTS

  1. Deportation is not always the solution

    If he has done the crime, let him do the time there in zambia or demand he be replaced

    That word is scary for some of us who live in diaspora

    Deportation? ouch I hate that word

    Thanks
    BB2014

    • Mushota you are a croak why should you be scared of being deported. Build a house from where you come from or else you will end up in the Zambian streets, surely we will miss you comments.

    • Right on the button Mushota,

      The guy should be tried if he has broken any laws. Deportatiom smacks too much of tinpot dictatorship and Banana Republicism. It’s the easy way out if you want to contain the truth.

    • I agree with Icalo Lifupa. Sometimes we also have to look at the employers’ point of view. We all know that the work ethic in Zambia is terrible. You walk into a workplace, Shoprite for example and the cashier is chatting to the packer. They don’t realise that you can’t serve two master, chat and serve the customer. There is poor training in work places especially in the hotel industry. Deportation is not the answer. Education of the masses is the answer so that they understand the importance of being in employment. There is also the race card played all the time. “No this person is racist get rid of him.” Such rubbish honestly. Some Zambian employers are among the worst. ZCTU also discipline your workers!

  2. Ba ZCTU don’t be so xenophobic. Is deportation the standard punishment for any foreigner? For any offence they should be deported?

  3. If the guy has committed the crime let him be arrested and taken to court for the offense. After he served in Zambia he should then be deported.

  4. Most Zambians are lazy and have very poor work ethics! Now what wity ‘human rights’, awe mwandi. I am Zambian myself and I find this fact annoying but it is true.

    • And the Labour laws spoil the worker. The employer doesn’t seem to have many rights. Businesses in Zambia are at the mercy of the employee. This needs to be looked into.

  5. From the time Mushota joined UPND she has been getting a lot of positives than negatives. Maybe in 2015 she will win again thee best blogger award but this time it will not be a mockery win of 2014.

  6. AND ZAMBIAN GOVERNMENT SHOULD RESPOND POSITIVELY TO THIS DEMAND. THERE IS NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE. THESE ABUSIVE FOREIGNERS ARE TAKING ZAMBIANS FOR GRANTED. THEY ARE ALREADY MILKING OUR COUNTRY, AND IMAGINE IT THAT THEY ARE ALSO MISTREATING OUR PEOPLE IN THESE ESTABLISHMENTS. THE RELEVANT AUTHORITY TO ADDRESS THIS MATTER SHOULD BE OBJECTIVE, AND NOT FALL INTO A BRIBERY TRAP SO THAT THIS FOOL IS LET SCOT FREE. IMMIGRATION OFFICE SHOULD DEPORT THIS FELLOW. LUNGU SHOULD GIVE THE DEPORTATION ORDER!

  7. As i do not support abuse of workers by employers in the same vein I am against laziness among workers. So here let GRZ look into this problem fairly for both the employer and the employee. Whoever is found wanting the law must vist him.

  8. Does ZCTU understand the immigration rules…if these are people workers are going to to resolve disputes then we are going to have problems?

  9. Well. Government will have to assess this situation if anything. You cannot just wake up one day and say deport this one or that one immediately. Deportation moreover is not the only solution here. Zambian workers are not going to demand for anything at their work places in the name of ‘the government will support us’. I personally think Government will not support any wrong doing just because there are foreigners involved. One thing workers in Zambia have to know is that there are better ways of trying to get whatever is being asked for from any management. The best one is through the court as opposed to disrupting operations of any organization. As employees we need to work towards avoiding pandemonium in our work places for the sake of continuation of Business. Strikes are a risk.

  10. Me I don’t believe in unions. They are just leach(s) sucking away money in the name of contributions from poor employees. Actually in my view, it is the union who needs an employee more than an employee needs a union on the Zambian platform. They are soooooo annoying.

  11. Please Mukuka DO NOT USE DEPORTATION AS AN INSTRUMENT OF SOLVING LABOUR DISPUTES.Most Zambian workers are not committed to duty and some union officicials within companies are so ignorant.Pls Mukuka educate your workers ans union officials on labour issues.

  12. Deportation is a desperate dictator’s tool. Always use established law to settle disputes amicably after legal debate and analysis. Otherwise personal biases contaminate final action. ZCTU must bring the manager’s case to court and prove he violated specific protocol or written code of conduct. They should not be depending on employee innuendos. ZCTU needs to grow up by learning modern methods for resolving labour conflicts.

  13. Intercontinental Hotel is a corporation and will have plenty more international managers in their Headquarters.

    Nothing wrong with revoking this abusive managers Work Visa or revoking his permanent settlement status.

    There is a worry that Zambia is resettling foreigners in Zambia rather than giving them work visas. This programme of enticing foreign workers to a country with High Unemployment among it’s very poor citizens; must end.

    There are plenty Hotel and Hospitality Managers among Zambians that can be given these roles and supported with Training.

  14. ZCTU should just stop these nonsense as they do not do anything. Shamende threatened about wages they kept there tails between legs. Hopeless

  15. Davies Chama PF SG, which planet do you hell from? This is an admission of what the UNPD spokes person was saying. Why do you take the zambian people for mags? In your right thinking mind its okay to get advise from someone accused by your own Gvt of committing serious corruption cases which are still active in courts of law? If you cant see anything with that, then you are not supposed to be in gvt. RB can not be participating in the admistration and governance of the country that has accussed him of corruption. Where is your integrity. You expect Banda to say yes I committed crime take me to jail. I thought you were a bit smarter than this, not anymore. You scargengers!

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