By ALICE NACHILEMBE
Ministry of Labour and Social Security has directed Management at Sinohydro at Kafue Gorge lower to pay workers an agreed Covid-19 quarantine allowance.
Labour Commissioner, Givens Muntengwa said the Ministry intervened in an effort to resolve a strike that has lasted 14 days from the first day workers downed tools at Sinohydro ZESCO project based at Kafue Gorge Lower.
Speaking during a dispute resolution Mr Muntengwa directed Sinohydro management to pay workers an agreed Covid-19 quarantine allowance to all employees who never received this incentive from March, 2020.
Mr Muntengwa said that the company should ensure that all employees are incentivized from the first day they were quarantined due to COVID-19 pandemic to the time measures were lifted.
He revealed that the Tripartite Consultative Labour Council, resolved and came up with conditions that all employers intending to quarantine employees must satisfy.
Mr Muntengwa has fined Sinohydro company One hundred thousand penalty units translating to (K30, 000) for failing to register with his office as an employer as per requirement by section 63 of the Industrial and Labour Relations Act.
The Labour Commissioner took time to educate workers on procedures involved before going on strike.
He requested all employees to get back to work or the strike can now be treated as an illegal strike as he had read to them the provisions of the law and requirements to be fulfilled before taking such an action.
Sinohydro Human Resource Manager, Yueng, revealed before the Labour Commissioner that the company has with immediate effect increased the salaries for across the board from K5.43 to K5.88 per hour.
This is contained in a statement issued By Joseph Chinyama Public Relations Officer an the Ministry of Labour and Social Security
