Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC) is yet to pay April salaries to over 900 employees and the company has admitted that it is facing financial difficulties which could force it to fire workers.
MPC Spokesperson, Ida Nkolimbo, has blamed Covid-19 for the financial challenges saying the company has not been collecting enough revenue.
“Things worsened last year and this year so financially we have had a difficult time,” said Nkolimbo.
She added that the company is implementing reforms to address the challenge of staffing because a lot of the company’s revenue goes to staff.
“For your information, currently staff cost hovers around 75-80 percent of revenue due to overstaffing as a result of the decline in letter business over the past decade,” she said.
Nkolimbo, however, could not say whether the company will fire some employees or not. She said MPC will get advice from the office of the Vice President which monitors reforms.
“The responsible office would advise us on what to do but at some point, we have to make sure that our revenue generation and staff package are making sense as far as business is concerned,” said Nkolimbo.
On the April salaries, Nkolimbo said the company expects business to pick up this month and that the situation will normalize.
Employees have since complained that they are struggling to support their families and are at risk of being evicted from their houses as they rely on salaries to pay bills.
During a reforms meeting last year, Vice President Saulos Chilima noted that MPC has not made profits in 20 years but instead it has accumulated debts amounting to K1.6 billion in utility bills and statutory obligations as well as K6.3 billion in taxes, levy and licence.
