Times Of Swaziland: MACSTEEL EMPLOYEES CRY FOUL OVER PICKETING ZONE MACSTEEL EMPLOYEES CRY FOUL OVER PICKETING ZONE ================================================================================ BY KWANELE SIBIYA on 11/09/2019 00:56:00 MANZINI- Picketing MacSteel Eswatini employees are crying foul over company material which was dropped off at their designated picketing zone. This comes after the Industrial Court of Eswatini issued a ruling last Thursday, endorsing the parking zone within the company premises as the legal picketing zone for the discontented employees. However, the aggrieved employees were up in arms yesterday as they cried foul over company material that was delivered at their legal picketing zone. This they said disturbed their picketing exercise as the material was dropped off right in the middle of their legal picketing zone. Information gathered from a reliable source was that the wire was dropped off accidentally by temporary employees whom the company has allegedly engaged for continuation of service. The source also alleged that the reason the temporary employees dropped off the wire there was because they were not yet familiar with the task at hand, given that they were still new at the company. “The reason the temporary employees dropped the steel wire there was basically because they do not know much about the operations of the company,” alleged the source. The picketing employees were of the view that their picketing exercise was stalled yesterday due to the aforementioned material being delivered at their picketing zone. On another note, according to the ruling issued by the Industrial Court, the employees were forbidden from picketing in front of the company offices. Agreement Terms of the agreement were to the effect that the employees could only picket four times a day at the designated areas during allocated times. Meanwhile the employees engaged in picketing that commenced last week Tuesday over altered benefits they used to enjoy from their former employer (Steel and wire International). Information gathered from one of the employees, who preferred to comment on condition of anonymity, was that the bone of contention was the company’s alleged inability to engage them (workers) on negotiations concerning their salary increment. Salary He said their former employer (Steel and Wire International) provided salary increment annually wherein a high income earner was granted a salary increment of 11per cent, while for middle income earners it was 12 per cent and for low income earners it was 14 per cent. However, he alleged that their new employer, Macsteel Eswatini, dictated terms to them that instead of 11 per cent increment for high income earners they would only grant them 5.7 per cent, 6.25 for middle income earners and 6.5 per cent for low income earners. Efforts to obtain a comment from the Managing Director at Macsteel Eswatini, Francis Goldstein proved futile as his phone could not be reached on the network at the time of compiling this report.