No tea, lunch breaks for TM till operators
EDITOR — It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter through our family paper. It is about TM Supermarket in Hwange.
If one observes the buying tendencies from the different shops in the mining town one would agree with me that TM has an upper hand living truly to the claim that Hwange is TM territory.
Not mentioning the congestion the shop experienced following the payment of the HCCL staff of their windfall 7 percent salary last week after having gone for three years without pay.
I realise people are just loyal to the old shop which they have had since time immemorial. People have their own reasons for preferring one shop to the other and if they have a choice, they would choose.
It is therefore not for this writer to elaborate on people’s choices. What has, however, prompted me to write this short letter is the unfair and unjust, inhuman treatment that the members of staff at TM are subjected to.
The staff at the shop do not have tea and lunch breaks, especially those who operate tills (at least these ones we see them).
More often than not I have observed till operators taking their tea and lunch “meals” at the tills while serving customers at the same time.
One then wonders what a lunch break is supposed to mean in the vocabulary of TM managers. Are people not supposed to have a small break and move away from their work stations and relax a bit before they can resume after some refreshments?
Probably one hour, or at least 30 minutes which is the norm with other companies. How is it different with TM family, especially here in Hwange?
How about the embarrassment of eating in public when you are being watched by strangers, people you do not know, and there you are munching your cream doughnut?
There is also the issue of hygiene which should be taken into consideration. The till operators eat with dirty hands thereby exposing themselves to diseases.
They also handle our wares with their dirty hands from their meals, dirtying our purchases in the process. I have noticed some trying to be “smart” by wearing plastic paper to shield their dirty hands but still to me this is not proper.
Yes, we have seen people eating in a bus but surely not a supermarket till operator serving customers. Where have our African norms and values gone to, I mean “buntu bweesu?”
Can someone please have a conscience. As already indicated earlier on, TM has been in existence for quite a long time here in Hwange but why not have a canteen and allow workers to alternate their lunch breaks?
It is every worker’s right to be allowed a decent and conducive working environment considering that people will spend most of their prime time at work and it is my prayer that management at TM supermarket will improve on the working conditions of staff.
If the staff has normal feeding period but they are just fond of eating and the management have just let it go may be an explanation will suffice to allay my ignorance, otherwise your service in the mining town of Hwange will forever be highly appreciated and for today we stop with this one. Concerned customer, Notanakabona, Hwange THIS time around Zifa president Dr Philip Chiyangwa and his team must scout for a long-term sponsor for our boys not the Chivayos and Magayas of this world who behave as if Zimbabwe national soccer team is their personal project. Some are running their clubs like boozers’ club where the president of the club is a player, coach, supporter, CEO and sponsor at the same time. They pretend like good Samaritains yet deep down they have hidden agenda. Of course Zifa need a crucial hand at this juncture but those with fat wallets must not take advantage of predicaments we are facing as a nation to advance their millage. — Cde Bla Max Boomerang. RESPONSE to “Tributes pour in for Cde Chinx”. R.I.P. Comrade Chinx, we will start from where you left. For the war will never be over until it’s over. Until all who believe the other side is fine are taught to respect themselves, their culture and their nation. There is that required your attention but, still, we will struggle about and come about. — Ray Mbada