Times Of Swaziland: WHAT RETRENCHED WORKERS WILL TAKE HOME

WHAT RETRENCHED WORKERS WILL TAKE HOME
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 BY SIBUSISO ZWANE on 31/10/2014 09:10:00


MANZINI – Retrenched Tex Ray Factory workers will get terminal benefits
ranging between E1 000 and E18 000.
Tex Ray workers are under the Swaziland Manufacturing an Allied Workers Union
(SMAWU) and its umbrella union, the Amalgamated Trade Unions of Swaziland
(ATUSWA).
SMAWU Secretary General Zweli Sihlongonyane said they reached an agreement with
the company and Ministry of Labour and Social Security in their meeting that was
held at Esibayeni Lodge on Tuesday on how they would calculate the workers’
terminal benefits.
He said they signed the agreement yesterday during a meeting that was held in
the company’s boardroom.
Sihlongonyane said they agreed with the employer that they would pay the workers
according to the law and their pay would include notice pay, additional notice
and severance allowance.
He said the company would also offer its workers five days extra bonus plus
leave pay, which would be equivalent to a salary of a fortnight.
“The union did some calculations for the expected maximum and minimum pay and
it reflected that the company would pay a minimum of E915 and a maximum of E18
000 as terminal benefits for the retrenched workers,” Sihlongonyane said.
He said employees who have served the company for a year or less were likely to
receive the minimum pay of E915 as they would be paid E0 for additional notice
and severance allowance as its formula was the number of years less a year.
“Those who have served the company for a year or less would be left with no
days to be paid for as the formula to calculate those benefits would subtract
the only year they have and leave them with zero days. Those who are likely to
receive the highest amount to be paid to an individual by the company were those
who had been with the company since it arrived in the country,” Sihlongonyane
said.
However, an inside source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the notice
pay, the five days extra bonus and the leave pay, which is equivalent to a
fortnight’s salary would, add up to over E1 000, which meant that the least
paid worker would receive slightly above E1 000. The source said he would not
comment on the matter as it was confidential between the company and the
workers.