Mohloai Mpesi
The Board of Directors of the troubled Water and Sewerage Company (WASCO) acceded to the staffer’s demands for a salary hike.
This comes after the then infuriated employees took a lengthy period picketing for 3.5% increment and a 5% inflation adjustment a fortnight ago.
The National Union of Commerce and Catering Workers Association (NUCCWA) Shop Steward Coordinator Motlokoa Mathaba, told Newsday that last Friday, the Acting Chairman of the Board of Directors, Advocate Monaheng Rasekoai agreed to grant he employees their demands hence the increase.
However, Mathaba was quick to mention that the Union is yet to finalise the rest of the papers with the leadership of the company to settle the bargain agreement, which was completed yesterday.
“We met with the Board on Friday and they have agreed to give us our requested salary increment,†Mathaba said.
Previously, the WASCO Board was reluctant to make any kind of promises or commitments to the matter without evaluating first whether its financial status would allow it to make increments. Rasekoai argued that as a company, they could only make salary adjustments when the finance permits that, also considering the financial sustainability of the company lest they end up retrenching some of the employees due to the company’s financial rough patch.
“These are issues that we have to take into consideration before deciding to make an increment,†he had said then.
The move to alleviate the company workers’ woes could be a step in the right direction to fishing it out of the troubled waters through which it has been surfing especially financially. It is reported that WASCO has in recent times failed to recover monies summing to over M171 million while also battling contempt of court charges after failing to reimburse its suspended recently dismissed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Futho Hoohlo (see story on previous page) for some monies surcharged off him.
