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Isles orders Chinese firm to compensate...
2006-09-05 08:19:17
By Mwinyi Sadallah, Zanzibar
Zanzibar labour court has ordered a Chinese construction company to effect overdue payments to more than 300 casual labourers who had worked for the firm for three years without proper contracts, prior to their dismissal.
The matter filed in court under case No.9/2006 and presided over by Justice Mshibe Ali Bakar, was filed by the workers in collaboration with members of the association of hotel, industrial and domestic workers in Zanzibar (ZATHOCODAWU).
In the ruling, it was decided that the management of CRJ E Company violated labour laws by not giving the workers their terminal benefits before sacking them.
In the ruling, the company was ordered to pay the workers who were forcibly retired, a one-month salary in lieu of notice and remit the 15 per cent contributions to the National Social Security Fund for all workers in addition to paying them leave allowances.
The court has also ordered the firm to sign contracts with the workers it had retained and those fired be paid with immediate effect.
If the court order was not adhered to, the judge said, some of the company’s assets including 11 vehicles would be auctioned.
After learning of the court order, the Chinese company which specialises in the construction of hotels and hospital laboratories, among others, pulled down the camp where it used to shelter the workers in apparent expression of disappointment over the ruling.
Interviewed, the sacked workers said the demolition was done at the weekend and they were each given 10,000/- for fare and ordered to leave the camp immediately.
It was also learnt that some of the workers come as far as Arusha, Mwanza, Shinyanga and other regions.
The workers said they moved to court after the Zanzibar Labour Commission allegedly took sides with the investors.
’’The labour commission defended the Chinese firm, telling the investors not to be bothered,’’ alleged one of the workers.
The workers used to earn 21,000/- per week over the past three years.
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