WORKERS at Zambezi Portland Limited in Ndola yesterday downed tools and demanded a K3.5 million increment across the board.
The workers also demanded that the company’s management should not insult or allow alleged hired thugs to batter them whenever they were deemed to have done wrong. A check found most of the workers outside the plant and shouting that they would not return to work until management met their demands.
Those spoken to said the lowest paid worker at the company got K420, 000 as basic pay and that there was no medical cover for their families, while the company was not fulfilling the mandatory requirement of taking them for pneumoconiosis examination. However, management, led by managing director Antonio Ventriglia, said the company was paying the stipulated minimum wage and had no problems with adjusting it once the Government made the changes in law.
In a meeting attended by the workers’ representatives, principal labour officer Eunice Mifima and Copperbelt Patriotic Front (PF) chairperson Rebby Chanda, Mr Ventriglia said the workers were also given K2 million funeral grant and that there were medical facilities in the plant at their disposal.
He said management would immediately award the workers K500, 000 across the board as a temporary measure, as it waited to hear from the Government on the revised minimum wage.
And Ms Mifima asked the management to immediately arrange a meeting with the preferred union body and ensure that they allowed workers to be affiliated. The workers were asked to disperse and get back to work today after assurance that management would put the agreement in writing.
And operations at Zinc Aluminum Copper and Ore Company (ZALCO) and Full Value Goodness (FVG) milling company in Kabwe yesterday came to a standstill after casual workers downed tools demanding improved conditions of service, among others issues.
At ZALCO, more than 200 irate workers blocked the entrance to the plant with huge stones and threatened to damage any motor vehicle entering the premises, while chanting and vowing to continue until the demands were met. The workers also threatened violence against Times of Zambia and Radio Maranatha reporters who they accused of siding with management.
Lubasi Chimuka, a representative of the workers at ZALCO, said management should consider increasing salaries from the current K15, 000 per day as it was not sufficient to sustain their families. “Management has to look into revising our salaries because most of us are working from as early as 07: 00 hours up to as late as 20: 00 hours but our salaries show nothing for these efforts.
“Most of us have been temporary employees for over two years and we want to be recognised as permanent employees,” he said. At FVG Milling, the workers held a peaceful protest demanding better salaries and conditions of service.
But FVG General Manager Hastings Mwase refuted the workers’ allegations that the company’s conditions of service were poor because their policies were in line with the country’s labour laws.
Mr Mwase said FVG management was still waiting for the restructuring of the minimum wage and would comply with the changes once they were announced.
In Lusaka, more than 400 ZESCO casual workers staged a protest at ZESCO head office demanding for among other things, job security and improved salaries.
The workers, who locked the entrances to the ZESCO head office demanded for increased salaries and job security. Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Joseph Phiri said the casual workers who had in some cases worked for ZESCO for over 10years wanted permanent jobs.
“Can you imagine we work for K1, 400 per hour and at the end of the month it only goes to about K450, 000? We want this to change because this amount of money is too low for us to afford a basic life,” Mr Phiri said. Management could not be reached for comment by Press time.
In Choma, workers at Mochipapa Livestock Development Trust (LDT) have gone on strike demanding payment of 15 months’ salary arrears. The angry workers who stormed ZANIS offices in Choma yesterday vowed not to return to work until they were paid their outstanding salaries.
They complained that their families had been reduced to destitution as a result of failure by the institution to pay them their dues. The workers said management has also failed to explain why they had not been paid their salaries in the past 15 months.
The claimed that the Government had been releasing money to LDT but that management was diverting the money to other unknown expenditures, leaving workers without salaries for 15 months.
Meanwhile, hundreds of workers at Mpulungu Harbour yesterday staged a protest demanding improved conditions of service. The workers who were supposed to report for work at 06:00 hours camped at the Main Bus Station, about 500 metres from the harbour.
[Times of Zambia]
