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Article Published on:
10th March 2005. |
| Investor beats up his workers |
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An Asian-American furniture manufacturer accused of kicking and boxing his workers says he only fears President Museveni. But a presidential representative in Kampala insists Museveni would never condone enslaving poor Ugandans. Richard M. Kavuma reports that government must choose whether to enforce Uganda’s laws or bend over backwards for investors. When Jaspal Phaguda rings a bell at Kapkwata Saw Mills in Kampala’s Industrial Area, workers must assemble at his office.
“F***n’ Mutooro, come and clean my windows,” Jaspal barked at Alijuna. “He boxed me everywhere, in the face, chest, and again he was kicking me,” says Alijuna, his left hand supporting the head. “Chapa yeye mjinga (beat this fool),” Jaspal reportedly ordered the guard. Other workers were ordered to hold him so he would not run away. All obeyed except one, who would be punished the following day. Covered in tears, and blood gushing from his mouth and nose, Alijuna would be kicked and gun-butted by private security guards called in by the boss, thrown onto a pickup truck and dumped at Jinja Road police station. The floor of the cell was cold, the smell sickening, the night painful for this youth who joined Kapkwata full of expectations. His plan was simple: a good job, savings, and back to school. His sister Dorothy Kiiza, with whom he lives in Mbuya, Nakawa Division, paid police Shs 30,000 the next morning to get him out of police cell. “Can you imagine that from that time up to today, that boy does not sleep on the bed? He sleeps on the hard floor because of pain in the stomach,” she said. Alijuna ties a white T-shirt around his stomach, in an attempt to control the pain. Medical forms from Nabakooza Family Clinic at Mbuya show that Alijuna was diagnosed with abdominal pain, chest pain and backache on January 18. A January 19 Police Surgeon’s report for Alijuna Ezekiel No. 54/10/01/05 shows that he had “old (two days) bruises and abrasions upon the upper back and both elbows; old bruising and swelling of the lower lip and fingernail scratch marks upon the right side of neck; exquisite tenderness over the left side of the chest…Consistent with assault with bare hands.” On January 20, he went to Mulago Hospital where a medical officer noted “pain in the hypochondria region, haematuria [blood in urine passed out] and scratch marks over the neck” among other things. Familiar company It was not the first time Alijuna faced Jaspal’s wrath. So, what monkey games was he playing? As we speak in the office of Steven Kabuleta, the Nakawa Division secretary for security and health, Alijuna is in familiar company: former Kapkwata employees claiming they were beaten and sacked without being paid. They hope that Deputy Resident District Commissioner (Nakawa) Samuel Mpimbaza Hashaka and Kabuleta will help them get their salary arrears. Kasaija Sam, 31, Mbuya resident: Started work last May. His assignments later included working at Jaspal’s house on Plot 1, Solomon Rise in Bugolobi, cleaning the compound, tending flowerbeds and feeding dogs. Makuma Wilson Wetete, 26, who first went to Kapkwata for industrial training, says Jaspal kicked and boxed him and tore his overall on May 8, 2003 reportedly for spoiling timber. Police failed to prosecute his case because of a contradiction in a witness statement. Fresh unrest The above complaints were this week corroborated by 14 carpenters who went on a sit-down strike after Jaspal beat up their colleague, John Anyot. Jaspal had on Saturday told Anyot he would not pay him whatever he did, and bragged that many had tried him and failed. Kapkwata director William Edwards then reported to the district labour office that the carpenters were misbehaving, by which, apparently, he meant demanding arrears for December-February. “Now that we are demanding our money, he doesn’t want us to go back inside. He is now going to employ new people,” said one, requesting anonymity. Another added: “And he has money! But when you demand your money, he beats you, and gives money to askaris to beat you”. Next to Museveni As labour complaints poured in, Kabuleta, Hashaka and an assistant inspector from Jinja Road police station visited Kapkwata Saw Mills on the evening of February 11. Their mission was to advise and caution Jaspal, according to the RDC. First, he refused to see them. They refused to leave. Then he refused to allow them into his office, only talking to them on the veranda. Hashaka and Kabuleta separately told The Weekly Observer that Jaspal told them that he is next to President Museveni and that nobody could touch him. He threatened to call State House but instead phoned his friend, Odrek Rwabwoogo, husband to Museveni’s daughter Patience, claiming that some people wanted to close his business. Known to each other, Rwabwoogo and Hashaka agreed on phone to co-operate to resolve the matter, but that never materialised. “I think because he beats up his workers and no one raises a finger, he thinks he is untouchable – which is not the case,” he said last week. Kampala District Labour Officer Adrine Namara told The Weekly Observer last week that her office deals with core labour complaints such as unpaid wages, leave and expulsion notice. “For a long time there have been complaints by workers that he [Jaspal] beats them up,” Namara said. “But assault is an issue handled by police. Beating workers is taking the law into his hands.” Malicious allegations For a man accused of violence and arrogance, Jaspal Phaguda, 48, strikes you as calm, peaceful, self assured and unbothered by anything around him. Like the RDC, this writer needed tenacity to see him. Then Jaspal walked down from upstairs slowly. “I suppose that is what you want. Everything is explained there,” he said. The letter says that on February 11, Hashaka went with an aide and two policemen, used foul language, threatened to close up his business and told him that he was a foreigner who should go back where he came from. Kasaija reportedly stole a telephone and flowers. Both, he said were reported to police. Wetete was not even an employee of Kapkwata, just a subcontractor. In any case, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) found there was no case. And Wazikonya? Jaspal does not know such a person. Problem bigger While Hashaka was appalled by the Kapkwata saga, an official in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development laughed about it. Two of them, John Mushagalusa, 36, from Bukavu in D.R. Congo, and his Ugandan age-mate John Okidi are demanding Shs 927,000 and Shs 529, 000 respectively, having quit last October and July. Okidi said the former boss, Claudio Cassadia, kept promising him ‘by the end of this week’ until the arrival of his second daughter forced him to go out and look for her milk. Cassadia, an Italian, refused to respond to his workers’ accusations despite having invited this reporter on phone. “There are so many complaints from that place, more than 30,” she said adding that management always claims that the complaining workers have stolen one thing or the other. She said her inspector, Muyonjo Balinda, was mediating between the company and its former workers. Under decentralisation, the ministry formulates policies, prepares guidelines and undertakes training while the district labour offices inspect workplaces and enforce the policies. Unfortunately, these aggrieved workers, barred from unionising, cannot go to the Industrial Court, which only handles cases from unions. Investor-friendly Uganda According to the Employment Act 1975, workers are among other things entitled to wages at the end of the day or month as agreed. The Act also limits the weekly working hours to 48 and entitles workers to leave, and termination notice. MPs argue that government has frustrated reform of Uganda’s archaic labour laws for fear of upsetting investors. For instance, unlike her neighbours Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, Uganda has no minimum wage. She said most complaints were on abrupt and unlawful dismissals and leave arrears, with the biggest offenders being private schools, security organisations and small and medium industries. According to the World Bank-funded report, Doing Business 2005, Uganda scores Zero in the area of hiring and firing workers. Some people, even in government, fear that President Museveni’s treatment of “investors” as a sacred cow makes them bigheaded enough to flout labour laws. In October 2003, Museveni ordered the sacking of 200 girls protesting maltreatment at Kampala’s Apparel Tri-Star, manufacturers of garments. His reasoning was that if the girls were not sacked, they would scare away investors. At the height of the row, the Tri-Star boss Veluppillai Kananathan raised eyebrows when he said he would only talk to Museveni (and not MPs concerned about the conditions in the factory). Workers MP Martin Wandera believes workers will continue to suffer until government becomes more sensitive to their rights by amending labour laws in their favour, or at least enforcing the existing ones. For him, however, the Kapkwata situation only mirrors what is happening in many other firms. Jaspal’s company might have been here for 50 years, as he says, but his nationality and ability to invoke the name of the President makes him an almost ‘untouchable’ investor. When Jaspal rings State House, will the President reprimand him, or will he rebuke his RDC for defending aggrieved workers? |
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