Maravi

Harbour workers ‘in danger’ from cement

Harbour workers ‘in danger’ from cement
By Ernest Chanda in Mpulungu
Thu 11 Nov. 2010, 04:01 CAT

SOME casual workers at Mpulungu Harbour Corporation Limited have complained of poor treatment from management and lack of protective clothing. But superintendent in charge of operations, Anthony Sichivula said the company was in the process of purchasing protective clothing for the workers.

The workers who spoke on condition of anonymity when The Post conducted a tour at the harbour on Tuesday complained that the cement they loaded everyday without protective clothing was a serious danger to their lives.

At the time of the tour, most of the workers had no protective shoes and overalls, and even those who had overalls did not have shoes.

One of the workers said: “We have been asking for boots and overalls for a long time now. And all management has been telling us is that we are casual workers who should not be asking for such conditions. But you see, even then we need those safety clothes and gumboots because the work we are doing is hard. When our government talks about labour laws they should also look at us.”

The workers said the government could only blame itself and not the investors because Mupulungu Harbour was a parastatal.

“Just look at me boss, look, I have no shoes. Look at that one and that one they don’t have shoes as well,” one of the workers said. Another worker complained that the wages they received were not enough.

“What we get is nothing compared to the work we do. We lift cement every day on our heads, but the money we get is not even peanuts. And the company makes a lot of money because they always have orders from Burundi and Congo DR Democratic Republic. Every day we have to load cement and sugar on these cargo ships you see here. They say we are special casuals but even casuals deserve some respect. Some of us have been here with them for a long time,” complained the worker.

But Sichivula assured that management had sent people to purchase protective clothing for workers.

“We have 100 workers we call stevedores. Besides, we have five gang leaders; the groups we divide them into we call them gangs. And these workers are special casuals, but we employ more when the amount of work increases. We have people who have travelled to Lusaka to buy protective clothing for these workers. So we have not ignored them, these things are on the way,” assured Sichivula.

Labels: CASUALISATION, CEMENT, LABOUR, MPULUNGU HARBOUR CORPORATION, PUBLIC HEALTH

posted by MrK @ 6:17 PM