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MORE WOES FOR HOTEL WORKERS

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MBABANE – It will be another tough two months for the Sun International employees who will not be paid for the months of July and August.
This follows the extension of the lay-offs for a further two months.


The lay-offs had initially started from May to June but have since been extended for another two months.
Employees will be without a salary for a period of four months now.


The General Manager at Swazispa Holdings Limited, Lance Rossouw, communicated the news to the laid-off employees through a memo, dated June 30, 2020.
Rossouw stated that it had been previously indicated that the lockdown period had placed Swazispa in an unfortunate position of having to close business entirely.


He said they were facing an uncertain future and were unsure when they would reopen.
According to the general manager, the business was unable to generate any revenue just before and during the lockdown.


Circumstances


“The company regrets to inform you that it has no choice under the circumstances but to extend the current lay-offs. You are therefore advised that the lay-offs have been extended for a further period of two months (July and August 2020),” reads part of the memo.


Rossouw further clarified that during the extension of the lay-offs, payments would be zero per cent, the same as it was in May and June 2020.
He said in an effort to assist the employees during the difficult time, Swazispa would continue to pay the monthly employee costs, related to insured benefits costs, including death, disability and funeral cover, in addition to the normal administration-related costs. 


To further assist employees’ cashflow, Rossouw mentioned that they had applied to the relevant retirement funds to continue the suspension of payments towards retirement funding.
Meanwhile, he said SwaziMed had agreed to continue to cover the members during this time. He said members were to repay SwaziMed when the company reopened over a period to be agreed upon.


Further, he noted that school assistance loan deductions would continue to be suspended and only be reinstated once relevant employees were back at work and scheduled as normal. 
On the issue of Provident Fund Housing Loans, Rossouw said the affected employees could apply for a payment holiday and a temporary suspension of monthly payments and forms were available from the payroll manager.


“For employees who are members of Sewela, the deductions will continue to be suspended during this time and only reinstated once relevant employees are back at work and scheduled as normal.”


He added that the human resource office would continue to issue letters to creditors on behalf of the employees. 
Rossouw said leave balances would continue to be frozen. He said there would be no annual leave accumulated and granted during the period. He said leave forfeiture would continue to be suspended.


Market


In an interview with Swazispa Holdings Limited Marketing Manager Ncobile Dlamini, she said the reality of the matter was that about 80 per cent of their revenue came from South Africa and they did not have access to the market at the moment.
Dlamini said the company was forced to take the tough decision of extending the lay-offs, adding that they would be monitoring the situation, especially the opening of borders if at all it happened.


She said it was sad news and a reality which employees were faced with.
One of the affected employees stated that this was a huge blow to them.
“I last received a salary in April. Even then, it was only 60 per cent of what I earn. This is serious and very sad. Where are we supposed to go? Government should come to our rescue, we will die of hunger,” the employee, who preferred to remain anonymous, said.

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