FILLING STATION WORKERS CRY FOUL

MBABANE – Over 50 employees of two related filling stations are subjected to exploitation.
They are allegedly forced to pay for fuel if customers refuse to pay after filling up.

This, they say, is despite the fact that the company supervisors play CCTV footage to check and confirm if indeed a client refused to pay, which they say is usually clearly witnessed in the footage.

Just recently, they had their bank cards taken by the employer as they have been ordered to pay E700 each for two speed points belonging to Nedbank worth E21 000.

One gadget is said to have gone missing while the other stopped functioning after it fell into a water bucket.

meeting

The workers said they were called to a meeting where management notified them about the latest developments.
“All of us now have to pay for the gadgets. We do not know exactly what happened with the one, but we suspect an attendant may have left it on a client’s car rooftop after swiping.”

Out of the many challenges faced by the workers, there is also that of allegedly forced payments of costs resulting from negligence.
They admitted that out of confusion and pressure at work, they were often negligent to the extent of filling up the wrong fuel in a car, which attracts costs of flushing the fuel system. “Normally we do not go through a disciplinary hearing but we are told to incur the costs of draining and cleaning the fuel tank of the affected car.”

The employees said all along they have been paying in instalments until recently when the employer decided he would take the whole amount at once from one month’s salary.

“As we speak we have an employee who took home only E300 after over E1 000 was deducted from his one months’ salary of E1 500,” said an employee.  
Labour Commissioner Sipho Tsabedze said this was totally against the country’s labour laws. He took his time explaining each one of the concerns raised and in summary it turned out that at no point was an employer meant to demand payment from an employee, regardless of an offence committed.

Client

Tsabedze said if a client refused to pay after filling up it was the responsibility of the employer to report the matter to the police.
“The employee can only come into the puzzle as a witness when the client eventually appears in court. He is not expected to pay up the bill left by the client.”
He went on to state that it was the duty of the employer to launch an investigation into company property that has gone missing.

He was referring to the two speed points; one of which went missing. “If the employer manages to trace the items to a particular employee then that employee should be taken for disciplinary hearing.”
If the employee offers to pay back the money then terms of payment should be negotiated and everything must be written and signed for, according to the commissioner.

The labour expert said it was illegal to then rope in all employees, expecting them to pay for company property they are not liable for.
On the issue of an employee who mistakenly filled up the wrong type of fuel, Tsabedze said the employee must be charged and taken through a disciplinary hearing.

“Even if they are found guilty there is no way the employer can issue a verdict that calls for the employer to pay for damages. The only verdict would be warning or dismissal if it has reached that stage,” he said.

He said an offer to pay for damages can only be negotiated by the employee and this is common where the verdict has reached dismissal stage.
The owner of the filling station was reported to be away from the office.
This reporter left her contacts after a senior staff member said he would notify him and ask him to return the call on Thursday but it was not returned.

On Friday, a man who said he was the garage owner’s father told this reporter that his son was busy attending the Sibaya event yesterday.
When he was told that Sibaya was over he switched to say his son was busy with Their Majesties at the meeting which the King was having with legislators.
Again he was reminded that the meetings were over and he ended up saying his son would return the reporter’s call.

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