EDITORIAL COMMENT: Companies must pay retrenchees their packages

More than 10, 000 workers were retrenched last year following a Supreme Court ruling which allowed companies to terminate workers’ contracts on three- month notice. Many companies took advantage of the court ruling to drastically reduce their workforce. Management of some companies got so excited to the extent of retrenching workers including those who were few months away from their retirement. Workers were literally thrown onto the streets with nothing to show for their many years of service.

Managers of many companies including state enterprises demonstrated high degree of insensitivity to the plight of workers who had contributed many years of loyal service to the different companies. This insensitivity prompted government to fast-track the amendment of the Labour Act to force companies to pay the retrenched workers severance packages.

The amended act set two weeks’ salary for every year served as the minimum package to be paid to retrenchees but companies and workers are free to negotiate a higher package. Many of the workers were retrenched between July and October last year and government gave companies up to the end of December last year to pay the retrenchment packages.

Many companies are yet to pay these packages as many of them had not budgeted for these packages when they embarked on the massive retrenchment of the workers taking advantage of the Supreme Court ruling.

The companies before the amendment of the Labour Act were supposed to just give workers three-month notice to terminate the contract but following the amendment, they are now required to pay the workers no less than the minimum package set by government. Many of the workers who are yet to be paid their packages are now destitute and their families are living in abject poverty despite the many years they have worked for the different companies.

We want at this juncture to implore government to take action against companies that are yet to meet their obligation to pay severance packages. The same managers who were excited to throw workers on the streets empty- handed should not be allowed to continue punishing the innocent workers.

The workers should be paid their packages so that they can invest the money to sustain their families. We want to commend government for coming up with business start-up loans for retrechees. The loans which were facilitated by the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Ministry, will be disbursed by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Corporation.

The government loans should augment the retrenchees’ packages so that they have adequate capital to start their own businesses hence the need to push companies to pay the packages. The companies that failed to meet the December deadline to pay packages should pay the outstanding money with interest. The government should not accept excuses by some companies that they have no capacity to pay yet they are paying salaries for the remaining workers every month.

Many retrenchees have formed associations where they intend to pool their skills together to start businesses but their major stumbling block is the delay in paying their packages. We want to once again urge government to come hard on the companies that are yet to pay the packages.

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