Over 7,000
employees of three Export Processing Zone (EPZ) factories in Mombasa Tuesday
downed their tools to protest against poor pay and the sacking of their
colleagues. Police were forced to fire tear gas to disperse a crowd of striking
workers in Changamwe, the county's industrial area. The staff were demanding
the reinstatement of over 30 colleagues whose contacts were not renewed by the
firms. The factories were shut down following the disturbances and the
management promised to re-open them this morning. "We are working under
inhuman conditions. We work for over four extra hours but we are not paid for
the overtime and we have been denied our right to join the union," said
Christin Kikaki, an employee at Ashton Apparel EPZ. Other than Ashton Apparel, other
affected firms include Mombasa Apparel EPZ and MK Apparel firms, both based in
Changamwe. The workers had early Tuesday morning staged a sit-down and despite
a meeting between their union officials and local political leaders, they
declined to resume duty. Reached truce See Also: Pupils report to wedding
celebration, not school "We reached a truce and agreed that the workers
should return to work. But because of the tension we later decided that they
should go home and come tomorrow (today)," said Tailors and Textile
Workers Union representative Evans Rajoro. According to the financial
controller for the four firms, Pankaj Mehta, the organisation has four entities
with a workforce of 7,000 and those employees whose contracts were not renewed
were found to be unproductive. "Out of the 7,000, we did not renew the
contracts of only 30 people. These individuals were sacked because of poor
performance," said Mr Mehta. Other staff said they were opposed to Pay As
You Earn (Paye) and National Social Service Fund (NSSF) which are statutory
deductions. "We were paid half salary in December and still we paid the
Paye and NSSF," said Teresa Mogambi, an employee.
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