HCAWUZ condemns Royal Solwezi’s ‘T-shirt awards’ for Labour Day

HCAWUZ condemns Royal Solwezi’s ‘T-shirt awards’ for Labour Day
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone and Fridah Zinyama in Lusaka
Wed 05 May 2010, 03:10 CAT

HOTEL Catering and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (HCAWUZ) president Mubiana Sitwala says it is shameful and an insult for the Royal Solwezi Hotel to give workers T-shirts as Labour Day awards.

But Royal Solwezi Hotel managing director Litana Shindaile refuted claims that the T-shirts were meant as rewards for deserving employees, adding that the truck carrying the awards to be presented to the employees and other items was delayed at Kazungula Border Post.

Commenting on Royal Solwezi Hotel’s awarding of T-shirts to three of its workers for hard work during Saturday’s Labour Day celebrations, Sitwala said it was clear some investors had lost respect for the government and workers.

“What employers or investors should know is that when they come into Zambia to invest, there is Labour Day on the Zambian calendar and they have a year to prepare decent awards to give to deserving workers instead of ending up insulting workers by giving t-shirts worth K20, 000,” Sitwala said. “It is not only Royal Solwezi Hotel. We have some investors even here in Livingstone who awarded workers up to K100, 000.

It is an insult and we have compiled a list so we are basically saying that all the employers in our industry who gave less than K5 million as awards to workers are being given 48 hours to award workers more decently or risk being black-listed by our union. We have the power to force organisations and government not to do business with these investors in terms of conferences and workshops.”

He said the union had been trying very hard to get employers in the hospitality industry to have their workers registered with the labour movement but that the labour department had been in many instances compromised by the employers.

“We have had a lot of cases involving abuse of workers rights and every time workers report, they are met with a lot of negative attitude by some labour officers who seem to be getting brown envelopes from employer’s mostly foreign ones. We have a list of such employers who are culprits and we want the government to sit down with us to review the performances of most of these so-called investors,” he said.

Sitwala said the Solwezi case was a clear sign that some employers had lost respect for the government.
“We need a harsh minister of labour if we are to get the respect we deserve from some employers.

If you take a survey out there, you will find that most of these employers are even evading tax by downsizing the number of their employees. Worse still, the Royal Solwezi Hotel incidence is loss of respect for government by the employer. I would not be surprised to find that the hotel is found wanting in many areas of their operations,” he said.

He said the government should review most of the investment licences of certain hotels and lodges.
“We have offered them a very good and conducive atmosphere to do business but what do we get in return as the owners of the land?

It is insults and abuse of workers as seen by a lot of the investors in the hospitality industry who don’t want to have their workers belong to a union of their choice. So to this end, we are giving Royal Solwezi Hotels 48 hours to award the three workers up to K5 million as per Labour Day circular.”

Phillip Mudumuka, Henry Kapamendi and Mirriam Kayebeta were awarded T-shirts as Labour Day awards.

However Shindaile yesterday that the spirit of getting both sides was not exercised when the story was first written.

“The awards for the employees were bought from South Africa and could not be presented during the occasion because the truck carrying them and other items was delayed at Kazungula Border Post,” he explained.

“As a responsible corporate social partner, we feel that it will be demotivating and below acceptable standards for a hotel such as Royal Solwezi to award t-shirts to its deserving employees during Labour Day celebrations. The T-shirts that were taken to the podium were meant for deserving employees to wear as representatives of Royal Solwezi and not prizes as portrayed by the people who put together the event.”

Shindaile said contrarily to the picture portrayed during the Labour Day celebrations, the hotel management had made necessary arrangements to buy awards for the workers which would reflect the true meaning for the occasion.

“As soon as the goods are delivered, I will personally take them to the labour office who will in turn give them to the recipients,” he said.

He said the deserving workers would be given reasonable prizes as soon as the parcels arrived.
Shindaile said Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) provincial secretary Benson Ng’ambi (who criticized the award) was creating animosity between employers and the workers because of his hidden agendas which are only designed to discredit investors in the area.

“We know that it is not always a must that the awards are given to employees during the Labour Day Celebration. Some companies give them out later to suit their programmes and convenience,” he said.

Shindaile said that Benson had a personal agenda to drive and should not drag other people into his battles.