Some employees of mobile network provider TNM, have expressed dissatisfaction in the manner through which the Company is carrying out the restructuring and subsequent retrenchment process.
Last month, the company announced that it will soon retrench some of its staff as part of an exercise which will make some positions redundant and which also will see the company outsourcing engineering functions.
The company’s memo on the matter dated 7th June, 2023, signed by its Chief Executive Officer Michel Hebert, indicated that the restructuring process is in an effort to adapt to new market demands.
The memo further assured the staff that the selection criteria for fitting the employees into the new organization, and for those that will be retrenched, will follow a strict and fair process led by mixed panels of managers, one in each business area.
However, some employees have penned Communication Workers Union of Malawi (COWUMA), which has a significant membership at the institution, expressing dissatisfaction with the restructuring and the subsequent retrenchment process.
In the letter to COWUMA seen by this publication, the employees accuse the Malawi Stock Exchange listed company for trying to compromise the recommended retrenchment guidelines as set by the Ministry of Labour.
It is reported that the company wants to use an in-house staff association which they say has not been relevant to the members and it is also alleged that most of them are being threatened for asking some questions on the retrenchment process.
“What has come out clear of the process so far is that there is a clear attempt by management to muzzle the recommended process by the Ministry of Labour on proper employee consultation and engagement. There are a lot of questions that have not been answered by management and we are even threatened for asking such questions.
“At the moment management is stage acting this process by using the in-house staff association which has not been relevant to members of staff for quite a long time now. As employees we feel the conduct of management has been deplorable because they have not responded to our questions regarding some elements of the process,” complained the employees.
The concerned employees said the in-house staff association the company wants to use in the process, never represent their interests and that “It is just there to rubber stamp management decisions and that has negatively affected us.”
The employees further says they wish the Ministry of Labour or any other authority would be there for poor Malawian workers so that they are represented by union which they wilfully joined.
“We don’t know whether the Ministry is even aware of what is happening here and how they can assist in the process since management does not want us to be represented by the union which majority of us wilfully and legitimately joined,” pleaded the employees.
When contacted for their comment on the matter, COWUMA through its General Secretary Hamilton Delezah, said they only came to know about the impending retrenchment through the media.
Delezah said immediately after learning about the impending retrenchment, the union wrote TNM plc for a meeting on the matter and the need to ensure that the process was carried out in conformity to Ministry of Labour’s guidelines, but to no avail.
“Sadly TNM’s management has opted for retrogressive approach by skipping the Union and opting for defunct staff association despite the significant membership that COWUMA has at the Company. We hope and pray that management will come back to their senses because a properly and thoroughly executed retrenchment process is good for business while the opposite is also true,” reacted Delezah.
Delezah further told this publication that COWUMA will seek an immediate intervention of the Ministry of Labour and even the court.
