Exploitation by labour brokers at MTN I am employed by an agency by the name of Tlhalefang based in Durban. I engaged on this job on in 2007 and I have been a Temp since, there are no benefits of what so ever we only pay UIF and the company contributes half.
In this call centre we are close to 630 and we are all working as Temps. Initially MTN had outsourced to a company called Interaction and Interaction had hired Tlhalefang to do recruitment for MTN. Since we are Temps anytime they wish to dismiss someone they just do so anytime. We work long hours and half of the time we are short paid. On the 1st of December MTN terminated their contract from Interaction and signed a new one with Tlhalefang. Our supervisors were therefore employed by MTN. At this time we expected change in terms of conditions that we work under and pay. The only change we saw or rather a benefit was being entitled to a R10 food subsidy on a daily basis. The last time we got an increment was in September 2008 and when we enquire about a raise they tell us that it’s not stipulated in our contracts and they do salary reviews after two years. Instead of making changes in January they sent us the attached Memorandum stipulating that our salaries will be adjusted and the difference will only be 2cents. Tlhalefang placements has insulted us in so many ways and then they called it professionalism. The last time we received an increment was, never since they were appointed as an agency for MTN. They now come back and give us a R31.12 as they say is a “SALARY ALIGNMENT ACROSS THE BOARD OF 173 AGENTS” when in fact agents in MTN Polokwane and MTN Johannesburg get paid a lot more than we get. Taxis, food, accommodation and school fees to mention a few increase every year and our employer does not care about that. This is what is called TRADE LABOUR, how can we continue to work under this environment. MTN keeps on saying refer to AGENCY. On top of that they decreased our shift allowance from 20% to 10%;meaning we do not get 1.5 shift allowance as per the BCEA.And that was effective from the 23 December 2010 on our pay without evening our consent. We as the Call centre agents then came together and formed a forum to approach the agency with our concerns and decline the Memorandum.Thlalefang told us that they will negotiate anything with us as our Employment contract is not negotiable. Soon after that they sent us numerous emails stating that we need to sign new contracts immediately and failing to do that will lead to Disciplinary measures. What I fail to understand is why do they make us sign new contracts when nothing has changed. On the contract they state clearly that we will never be permanent. Is that an acceptable Labor practice? On top of it all one of our Forum representatives was suspended under allegations that he had misled other agents and made false allegations about the agency and he hasn’t been re-instated. When the forum had a meeting with Tlhalefang in about a week ago Tlhalefang Management refused to discuss his suspension and said his suspension was a personal matter between him and the management. We managed to join the Communications Workers Union and Matthew Ramos(KZN Administrator) has vowed to stand by us. The Tlhalefang Management has refused to meet with our union representatives. These are the major concerns that we have : 1. We have been Temps since 2006 and according to BCEA SECTION 83 that is unlawful. 2. We do not have any benefits ; our employer deducts only UIF and P.A.Y.E. but our management has benefits such as Medical aid 3. We have never had a pay increase since September 2008 and it ranged between R2.20 and R2.70. Can one work in a company for more 2 years without a raise? 4. A lot of agents have been unfairly dismissed especially those who have stood up against the unfair treatment from management 5. The environment is not conducive at all for working due to ridiculous house rules and regulations that the Agency has put in place 6. A couple of people have tried to raise our concerns in the previous years but they were either dismissed or bribed by being offered higher positions. 7. Last year 2010 December MTN took over the contract from a previous contractor Interaction and we expected a raise in pay but instead our shift allowances dropped from 20% to 10% 8. When we signed contracts we were told that we are in an ongoing contract, all of a sudden they forwarded us a memorandum stating that we need to sign new contracts and our pay has been adjusted by a lousy 2 cents. That is questionable as well; why are they making us sign new contracts now? And why instead of a pay increase to we get an adjustment of 2 cents? 9. When we approach Senior Management from MTN regarding this matter they chase us away and tell us they have nothing to do with it we should consult our agency. 10.We have had so many cases where we have been short paid and even now I have been short paid by at least 1/ 4 of my monthly salary and to date they have not rectified that. On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 7:03 AM, Ndinisa Maviyo <[email protected]>wrote: > > -- > You are subscribed. This footer can help you. > Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to > this message. > You can visit the group WEB SITE at > http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery > options, pages, files and membership. > To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected]. > You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to > put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to > this address (repeat): [email protected] . > -- Regards, Matela Mthwalo Managing Director M-Cubed Business Solutions Mobile Phone:0735234919 Fax:0865620177 -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
