Adisgruntled Dawilah Maikano of Moshupa who is nursing a broken left leg after a heap of soil collapsed on him while working inside a deep water trench is disappointed in his former employer, Unik Construction Company.

Maikano is the 46-year-old man who watched in horror early this year as his two colleagues - Nono Lesego and Notice Walebatla - suffocated to death when soil collapsed on them.

The trio, together with other workers were employed by the construction company to dig water trenches in Moshupa.

However, on the 6th of May 2022, they were told by company bosses that they should get into the trench and smoothen the ground for easy flow of water.

While still busy working inside the six-metre deep trench, soil collapsed on them. Maikano’s colleagues died but he was left injured.

Unik Construction assisted Lesego and Walebatla’s families with burial expenses and it was this noble gesture that gave Maikano hope that his employer would also offer him support seeing that he got injured while working.

However, that has not been the case. Seven months later, he is struggling to walk, jobless and broke.

According to him, after he got injured in May this year, the company paid him just about P1 500 from May until August.

“I was not going to work but staying home, they paid me the monies and I was thankful. But they have since stopped and I am broke and jobless.

“I cannot do anything to help myself because I am still in pain, I cannot look for a job. They have not taken me to a specialist so that my leg can at least heal. I have been dumped just like that,” he cried.

Maikano began working for Unik Construction company in November last year. He was hired on a contract that was renewed every month. From November last year until he got injured in May 2022, the company had always renewed his contract.

“I believe that even if I was not injured, I would still be working for them but I was told that they see no point in continuing to pay me while I remain at home. I am very sad,” Maikano

said, adding that since he got injured, the company never bothered to check on him.

“I just wish there was someone who could help me, I have knocked on several doors, I went to Labour offices and the advice I got was that because my contract ended, there is nothing they can do to help me.”

Information gathered by this publication at the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs is that an employer can pay his employee two thirds of their salary when they are on sick leave.

There is no law that forces an employer to keep paying an employee a salary after their contract ends. Labour office can only intervene in compensation issues during the period that the employee is employed. “I went to tell area Member of Parliament (MP) Karabo Gare my concerns and they promised to talk to the company but nothing is coming up,” Maikano

said.

He added that Unik Construction Company was advised even by Moshupa elders that they should at least reinstate him. “The doctor said I can go back to work and not do anything heavy but still there is nothing happening,” Maikano went on.

The stressed man currently has no money. He cannot even afford to buy a bar of soap for bathing. He is a father of four and is failing miserably to put food on the table for them.

“I wonder if they believe that the P6 000 they gave me for four months is compensation enough. I might never be able to work again.

“They should take responsibility, if they do not want to pay me at least pay my hospital bills so I get well again. I have no money for lawyers as people advise,” he said.

By press time Tuesday, Unik Construction Company project manager who identified himself as Chiwanga had not responded to a questionnaire sent to them.