By Neo Kolane
Five staff members of the medical centre Carewell Clinic have their pockets empty following a deadlock between the clinic and the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho (IDUL) over non-payment of salaries.
The secretary general of IDUL May Rathakane wrote a letter on November 30 to the human resource manager of the clinic requesting a consultative meeting for December 7 to introduce IDUL as union representative of the clinics’ workers, and also to discuss the unpaid wages of workers for consecutive three months.
In an interview with theReporter yesterday, Rathakane explained that both the union and the management of the clinic failed to agree on talks planned regarding the two issues, triggering a possible seeking of court intervention by the union.
Rathakane said the union tried to make an appointment with the human resource manager about the unpaid workers’ ages workers. He said the issue relating to unpaid wages was dating as far back as January 2021.
The issue regarding unpaid wages has since been hounding the union which sought assurances whether salaries would be paid or not failure which the trade movement would seek legal relief.
He said when the issue is brought before the labour court they will not bow to any attempts to influence them to pull it off.
“The Directorate of Dispute Prevention and Resolution (DDPR) takes a long time on the matter, although I do not remember the exact date when it happened it was taken to the DDPR because some of the workers have long resigned,” he said.
A former worker who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal said it is not only nurses who are not being paid, but also the administrative staff.
The ex-worker disclosed that six employees have resigned because they had not been paid their dues.
The former Carewell employee also explained that there is a big challenge when it comes pay day, saying that some money went missing and no one would account for it leading to some people resigning.
“Some workers retired without receiving their dues,” the former worker said.
Both the Labour Court and the Directorate of Disputes Prevention and Resolution (DDPR) are mechanisms created for resolving labour disputes through third party intervention. The Labour Court is an adjudication forum whilst the DDPR exercises mediation and arbitration (Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) powers.
The Lesotho Labour Code Order 1992 Section (81) on how wages to be paid states that:
(1)The wages of every employee shall be made payable in legal tender only, and any agreement whereby the whole or any part of the wages of an employee are made payable in any other manner shall be void.
“However, nothing in the Code shall render illegal an agreement or contract with an employee to provide the employee, as partial remuneration for his or her services in addition to money wages, with food, a dwelling place and/or such other allowances or privileges as may be customary in the trade or occupation concerned. The Minister may make regulations whereby, in specified classes of employment or in particular cases, contracts may provide for the partial payment of wages in the form of allowances in kind,” the section read.
Section (86) of the Lesotho Labour Code Order 1992 states that offences relating to wages shall be prohibited for any person to
(a) employ or continue in his or her employment, any employee without intending to pay, or without having reasonable grounds for believing that he or she can pay, the wages of such employee as they become payable;
(b) without reasonable excuse, fail on demand to pay in accordance with the provisions of this Part any wages due to an employee;
(c) make any deduction from wages with a view to ensuring a direct or indirect payment to an employer or any intermediary for the purpose of obtaining or retaining employment;
(d) make any other deduction from wages not authorised under section 85 or 87.
However, the human resource manager of Carewell Clinic, ‘Mampho Motsosi, claimed that none of the union representatives showed up at the envisaged meeting. She said the proposed meeting was only attended by her.
Motsosi said every business goes through what she termed ‘an unknown phase whose emergence could not be easily identified’.
“We sat down with the staff to figure out how we could solve the problem. Some staff members suggested that the clinic should not close down as it was going through hard times. Instead they suggested they be paid little stipends bit by bit.
“All of a sudden, they kept resigning one by one, because of the issue of being paid half of the initial agreed stipend arguing the conditions were burdensome. I thought we would together sit down and man a better way forward.
“The staff had only not been paid for a month and half, and I had never said I would not pay them,” she said.
She said fortunately she realised the clinic was overstaffed and was relieved that some resigned and now the business is going back to normality.
She further said if people who are badmouthing Carewell Clinic think they are pulling it down by going to the radio stations, that was not going down well with the administration.
Those who called it quits are a receptionist, one working in the X-Ray section, a nurse, a cleaner and lay counsellor.
