Salima Council ground labourers threaten to go on strike over unpaid salaries

Disgruntled ground labourers at Salima District Council have threatened to put their tools down if the council does not honour their January and February salaries by Friday.

According to a source at the council, the labourers who are employed on a six months’ contract have not been paid since they were engaged in January this year.

The source said that the council owes the ground labourers three months’ pay amounting to over K1 million.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana), Agnes Mathias one of the 40 workers said that the council management has failed to take action despite the group’s complaining a number of times.

“We have been patient for a very long time and we cannot tolerate it anymore. We are failing to sustain our families because they are not paying us. If they don’t pay us by the end of this week we will stop working,” she said.

The Council chief accountant Kelvin Banda said they have finished preparation of salaries for the concerned labourers and that the cheque would be issued any time.

He said that there is a group of people which is trying to frustrate the efforts by the management and blamed the undisclosed group for inciting the workers to go on strike.

“We reserved their money and we could have paid them earlier on, but we failed to do so because of other reasons. We are sourcing their money and the council is making sure that they are paid the soonest time possible,” Banda said.