ESCOM to go on strike

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Electricity Malawi

Staff of the worst performer of the year Electricity Supply Corporation on Malawi (ESCOM) have indicated that they are going on a strike starting from next month, 1 December 2015.

In a statement that the union of the workers has published in one of the daily papers, the members of the union will be downing their ineffective tools from 1 December following disagreements they have with their management over the plans to disband the corporation.

Escom Malawi load-shedding
ESCOM downing tools

The Malawi government has said that it will disband ESCOM into two so as to make it effective. According to the press statement, ESCOM workers fear that with the disband comes a loss of work which they want to avert.

It is said that members of staff asked government to assure them of their jobs but ESCOM management has not and thereby forced them to start the process of lodging a complaint with the Ministry of Labour which has also not helped them.

ESCOM says that it is for that reason that they have served a notice to the public notifying that they will be downing tools after 30 November.

Malawi currently experiences the worst power shortages in history, a situation that has made people wonder what job ESCOM does which they are threatening to not offer in the event that their concerns are not addressed.

“I thought ESCOM was already on strike,” a social commentator jokingly posted on Facebook in reaction to the statement.