Business / Local
Meikles fired workers to save business
24 Mar 2015 at 12:36hrs | Views
Meikles Limited which fired 33 workers last week in Bulawayo has said it was the only option to keep business viable.
The company served employees with termination of employment letters while at work last Friday in a nationwide exercise, which is reportedly targeted at releasing over 70% of its workforce.
Meikles company secretary Thabani Mpofu said the development was unfortunate and denied that workers were unaware of the process.
"That is not accurate because since last year, management went round all branches in the country informing people that a rationalisation exercise was inevitable.
"We know the law requires us to give three months' notice before terminating employment and to cater for that, we have undertaken to pay three months' salary in lieu of that notice period. In addition, we have granted a gratuity payment in acknowledgement of the service a person has given us over the years," he said.
"Everything has been done according to strict dictates of the law but we have to understand that we are dealing with people who will understandably be emotional," he said.
"We always try to treat our employees well even in tough times, for example, we closed the Gweru branch but kept workers on our payroll for over 18 months as we tried to resuscitate operations.
" That is the kind of consideration we afford to all our employees."
However, Mpofu said the fired workers would be consider for re-employment first when operations normalised.
The company served employees with termination of employment letters while at work last Friday in a nationwide exercise, which is reportedly targeted at releasing over 70% of its workforce.
Meikles company secretary Thabani Mpofu said the development was unfortunate and denied that workers were unaware of the process.
"That is not accurate because since last year, management went round all branches in the country informing people that a rationalisation exercise was inevitable.
"We know the law requires us to give three months' notice before terminating employment and to cater for that, we have undertaken to pay three months' salary in lieu of that notice period. In addition, we have granted a gratuity payment in acknowledgement of the service a person has given us over the years," he said.
"Everything has been done according to strict dictates of the law but we have to understand that we are dealing with people who will understandably be emotional," he said.
"We always try to treat our employees well even in tough times, for example, we closed the Gweru branch but kept workers on our payroll for over 18 months as we tried to resuscitate operations.
" That is the kind of consideration we afford to all our employees."
However, Mpofu said the fired workers would be consider for re-employment first when operations normalised.
Source - Byo24News
