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SA TIMBER COMPANY PAYS EMASWATI E100 SALARY

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MBABANE – BTF Forestry Company workers are up in arms with their employer over alleged meagre payment, among other things.


Some of the disgruntled workers, mostly labourers in the pine harvesting company subcontracted to Peak Timbers, went home frustrated during pay day when they allegedly received as low as E100 for the month of June.
The employees, whose identity will not be revealed for fear of victimisation went on to also complain that  they were being made to peel off the logs with bare hands as they were not provided with safety gloves as about 20 of the workers of the over 61 employees were still without uniform.



USE OWN CLOTHES
“Some of us have to use our own clothes because the company could not afford to provide uniform to all of us. This is part of the challenges we face that make it difficult to peel as many logs as possible to improve our pay, because the pay rate is determined by the number of logs you have peeled monthly. We have to bring our own boots and gloves from home. Those who were not given the required uniform are compelled to use their bare hands to peel off the logs which then makes it tougher for them to meet the quota needed,” said one employee.


One of the workers who visited the Times offices showed an in-contact message of his salary where he was paid E750, making him one of the highest paid on the day. He said he was supposed to pay rent and buy food with the money as some of them were unable to secure accommodation from the houses provided by Peak Timbers who are the main contractors.


“I was one of the better paid; my friend got E100 and he was shocked because he had to pay rent. Others received E200,” the worker said.
Others complained that besides the alleged meagre salaries, the company deducted provident fund, but when they tried to follow up with the Swaziland National Provident Fund (SNPF), they alleged that their names were not in the list of beneficiaries.


“We are in the dark about our state of our deductions,” said another aggrieved employee.
The employees alleged that they had reported their grievances to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security but alleged that nothing had been done to normalise the situation.


“They know that we are desperate for the job. We have no alternative because even educations wise, we have no leg to stand on. We have to take whatever they give us. In fact, we have just accepted our fate,” said another employee.
The employees, when asked if they had communicated their grievances to their employer, said they were afraid to do so because most of the times during their daily morning meetings, because they were allegedly told that those who have concerns should just leave.

wages determined by efforts


BTF Forestry director Frans Skippers was reported to have been in South Africa when sought for comments. Instead, Supervisor Mandla Matse, who was found at one of the company’s harvesting sites next to Ndzingeni on Thursday, hinted that it was possible that some of the employees were paid as low as E100 because of the agreed pay rate. Pressed further to get explicitly confirm the E100 salary, he was quick to get state that the workers salaries, said their pay rate was agreed upon by both parties. He said the company’s pay rate was E3 for an 11 metre log, E1 for a 3.1 metre log and 90 cents for a 2.4 metre log.


Matse then said the wages were determined by the effort put in by each worker on a daily basis.
“All we do is to count the number of logs according to their pay rate to determine the salary of each worker,” he said.

safety gloves, uniform


About the alleged failure to provide some of the workers safety gloves and uniform, he said they explained their situation to both the workers and Peak Timbers who are their clients. The company, he said has a staff compliment of 61 workers and about 20 were left out when they bought the uniform.
“We will eventually give the rest of the workers the uniform and safety gloves. This is what we also told the inspectors from government and Peak Timbers when they came to assess if we were complying with all the stipulated labour measures,” he said.


According to the latest gazette on Forestry and Forest which also include agricultural workers, an employer could engage workers on a task-work basis. The law states that it should be agreed upon by both parties and under this set up, the worker is paid according to the amount of work done on daily basis which is translated to monthly. Apart from the task-work, the gazette stipulates that the minimum wage for this industry should be E300 per week.
Matse said the company started operating in Swaziland in October last year, and they have covered much ground in trying to comply with the labour laws. Addressing the accusation levelled against them regarding the provident Fund, he said their error was that they deposited a lump sum to SNPF without the workers’ employment numbers, which they were still working on.



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