Cement firm staff down tools over unpaid wages

Company says last year’s strike caused this non-payment

INCA Concrete Masonry Products employees in Mdantsane have downed tools for the second time in a year, demanding two fortnights’ wages.

The general workers will be facing a second fortnight today without any payment.

They are demanding their wages be paid to them along with the UIF and provident fund.

Office workers and permanent staff have also been affected.

They have been showing up for work every day despite the continued non-payment because they understood the company was facing financial difficulty, the company’s managing director Zolile Tini claimed yesterday.

Tini told the Daily Dispatch that the non-payment was because of last year’s five-week strike.

“Last year we were faced with three months of no business due to the strike.

“This entire situation has had a ripple effect on all of us because there is no money, which we have communicated to the guys.

“This is [a] good business but we’re just not getting the help we need to rescue the business,” Tini said.

He said the company was an independent entity and it would take about R15-million to turn things around.

“We feel bad for the situation but it is out of our hands completely.”

The general workers said their employer did not value them and blamed them for causing the financial situation.

Masibongwe Qutu, who has been with Inca for 10 years as a machine operator, said he was the sole breadwinner at home.

“He [Tini] is abusing us by making us come to work as casual workers with no chance of becoming permanent.

“I am the breadwinner of my home and I feel bad because I can’t provide,” Qutu said.

Mlungiseleli Mbangi, who has dedicated 29 years of his life to the cement company, said it was the first time the firm had not paid them.

“I am hungry, my children are hungry because I don’t have money.

“I receive R25.80 per hour which is not a lot but to have to now do without, it is very bad,” he said.

When the Dispatch visited the area yesterday, the disgruntled general workers were standing in the parking lot and preventing work from progressing.

Tini said he had pleaded with the workers not to strike last year but they continued, resulting in the circumstances they are now facing.

“It is such a sad moment but once again, as we had said last year, let us not go on strike because strikes have never had any good outcomes.

“We are hoping that our funders will come to our rescue and help us out of this situation so that we can pay our employees,” he said.

Tini said he had been in talks with the company’s funders about reaching an agreement soon.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union representative, Melisizwe Pelisile, said Tini had promised to come up with a solution by next Tuesday. —