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Sifundiso Ndlovu Business Reporter
FORMER Travel Goods employees are up in arms with their employer, Treger, and the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) for failing to account for their monthly pension contributions. About 170 workers who were transferred from Travel Goods after the closure of the company in 2010 to other subsidiaries under the Treger Group, said they were shocked to discover that NSSA was not receiving their subscriptions.

General Engineering Iron and Steel Workers’ Union chairperson Edward Nduru and one of the workers affected by the mix-up said there was a need for investigations to ascertain why their subscriptions were not being remitted when their employer is deducting money from their pay.

“Our payslips indicate a NSSA deduction of $11 every month. When I checked with NSSA, I was told that they were not receiving the subscriptions. This is worrying, where is our money?,” said Nduru.

Workers told Business Chronicle that this has fuelled suspicions their contributions were being misappropriated.
“We want to know who is responsible for this. There could be some corrupt activities taking place. We are worried that this will affect our pensions,” said one worker who declined to be named for fear of victimisation.

Treger Group Human Resources manager Gilbert Moyo said the company was fully paid up in compliance with the law.
“Our pay roll is up to date and we have paid all our statutory requirements including NSSA. We are actually worried why our workers are not in the NSSA system when they were transferred more than two years ago,” said Moyo.

NSSA spokesperson Philemon Shereni said they were investigating the matter and were not yet clear what caused the mix-up.
“We had similar incidents in the past where companies deduct NSSA deductions from the workers and fail to remit the subscriptions to us. We are, however, still investigating this particular case,” said Shereni.