Workers rehired on temporary one-year contracts

Employees threaten court intervention

Frustrated and disappointed employees of Nata Timber in Gaborone are ready to take their employer to court for what they deem unfair labour practices. Nata Timber is a local company manufacturing and supplying wood products.

This week, The Midweek Sun heard that on the 30th of March this year, Nata Timber management informed employees that they will be getting an ‘unusual’ amount of money as salary that payday.

This was because the company had taken a decision to terminate their contracts hence they would be paid their monthly salaries and all other accrued benefits.

For those who were owing the company, or had taken loans with the company at the beginning of the year, the company had decided that it would deduct all that is owed to it as a lump sum.

“A few hours after the shocking announcement we received monies later that day and indeed some had been paid more while others got less. We tried asking what was going on but no clear explanation was provided.

“We feel that what they did is unfair because we were not given any notice, how does someone fire you and only inform you on the last day of the month? We do not even have termination letters,” a disgruntled worker said on Monday.

This publication has learnt that some of the affected employees have been working at Nata Timber for close to 10 years. However, most of them do not have employment contracts.

“Most of us were made to sign letters when we got employed but we were never given copies of those letters. We have just been working, we were never told that we are on any contract, we were hired on permanent basis. This is why we have never been called for contract renewal or anything.”

The employees mostly earn a basic salary of P1 500 to P5 000 monthly. They argued that what they were given on March 30 is not even close to accrued benefits given the many years they have been with the company.

“When you earn P3 500, when we say they gave you a little extra we are talking about an extra P1 500 or P2 000. They have now re-hired us and given us one year contracts but what is shocking is that the first six months of the one-year contract is probation period. How are we put on probation when we have been with the company for so many years?”

The employees say they have been left with no option but to seek court intervention.

A man identified as Nata Timber General Manager, Mr Aley Zaidi promised to respond to The Midweek Sun questionnaire on the matter but had not done so by press time.

“Our Human Resource Department is working on it, we will respond,” he said on Tuesday.