Ndola Lime staff protest over pay rise

Ndola Lime staff protest over pay rise
Written by Zumani Katasefa in Ndola
Saturday, July 04, 2009 3:11:00 PM

PRODUCTION at Ndola Lime Company yesterday morning ground to a halt as workers protested against managements’ failure to award them a 40 per cent salary increment.

The irate workers who were found gathered within the company premises had also switched off kiln machines and demanded for the immediate removal of the entire management led by managing director Daudi Amis for alleged incompetence. The workers complained that the salary negotiations, which started in March this year, had taken too long to be concluded.

“The negotiations started in March but management had refused to give us a 40 per cent salary increment, and now they want to defer the negotiations to December. They are saying they cannot give us that increment because of the global financial crisis,” complained one of the workers.

The workers blocked the entrance to the company with a dump truck and big stones, hindering Amis and other managers from gaining access to the premises.

“This management has failed to buy spare parts for the faulty machines, instead they are taking any machine that develops a fault as scrap which they later sell for their personal benefits,” they said.

They further complained that the firm owed suppliers huge debts saying this was due to bad management.

“…Instead of giving us our salary increment, management instead is giving us what it is calling stand alone allowance of K110,000 each, this is sad,” they complained.

The workers also complained of casualisation at the firm and called on government to move quickly and arrest the situation.