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TRL starts operations with unrest
2007-10-07 10:28:40
By Lucas Lukumbo
Early this week workers of the former Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) disrupted the smooth opening of the newly formed Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL) demanding payment for terminal benefits.
Staff Writer Lucas Lukumbo has unearthed some of the reasons why the workers staged the unrest… The workers did not mince their words before their would-be new employer after the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) had been officially concessioned.
``We have to be paid our terminal benefits first before continuing with the new employer,`` the employees told the new management in the presence of the Minister for Infrastructure Development, Andrew Chenge.
Tanzania and India`s RITES Company Ltd signed a pact under which the firm will run the giant state-owned Tanzania Railways Corporation under special arrangement.
The company is being concessioned at 51 percent for 25 years and had requested US Dollars 44 million loan from IFC to partially fund capital investments for the first five years.
Apparently speaking on behalf of the disgruntled workers, Bakari Mapande an in-charge of the Boiler Section with the TRC volunteered to call a spade a spade to the Guardian on Sunday.
Mapande said there has been a bad system in the way the terminal benefits were effected by the TRC.
He confided that according to the retrenchment procedure, those who had worked with the TRC starting with the defunct East African Community were to be the first to be retrenched and their payments effected.
``To our surprise there were many former EAC workers who had opted to retire hoping that they would be considered.
Instead many were those who had just been employed and were paid handsomely,`` he says.
The 57 year-old employee said they would not like to work with those who had already been paid terminal benefits.
He said many officials of TRC were paid between Sh 50 and Sh 100 million and asked to come back for another chance saying, ``these people have played monkey tricks.``
He also said that the payments were effected to others without specifically saying what they were paid for. ``Normally when one is paid terminal benefits, one is told as to how much he is paid for transport, golden handshake and others.
In our case there was no such thing. We think there is something amiss in the whole exercise,`` he says.
Looking distraught, the Minister for Infrastructure Development, Andrew Chenge said the government would scrutinize complaints by the workers and come up with a solution to mend the relations between the workers and the new management.
Equally disappointed was the Tanzania Railway Limited Managing Director Tayaram Narasimhaswami who said the new leadership would make sure that workers would enjoy working with the new management for the betterment of the company and the nation at large.
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