Former ATCL Staff seek PM intervention

Former Air Tanzania staff have asked the Prime Minister, Mr Mizengo Pinda, to intervene and help them get their retrenchment payments.
The workers who called at the PM's office at around 8.00 in the morning last Friday were however unable not meet the Premier and they were forced to channel their complaints through a complains' committee. According to their secretary, Mr Afrika Kagema, the committee promised it would forward their complaints to the permanent secretary in the Prime Minister's office. "The committee has promised to work on our problems and have been asked to come back later for the feedback on the matter,"said Mr Kagema. According to Mr Kagema, the retrenched workers had reached the decision to meet the Prime Minister after the Ministry of Infrastructure Development failed to solve their problems. "We are demanding for our pensions but we are told that our former employee did not remit the deductions to PPF for 16 months from May 2008 to November 2009,said Mr Kagema. He said after approaching the ATCL over the matter, the management agreed to remit 12 months' deductions to PPF and therefore four-months' pay remains. Other payments include Sh101 million in health insurance and long-serving payments that are provided to workers who have served for more than 10 years. "We had talked to the Ministry of Infrastructure Development permanent secretary, Mr Omar Chambo, and he promised to work on our demands, but when we went there the other day, we were informed that the PS was attending parliamentary sessions in Dodoma," said Mr Kagema. According to Mr Kagema, the deputy PS, Mr Kalinga told them that they were free to sue the ATCL and the government if they were not satisfied with the way the government was handling their matter. "We were very much provoked by this statement, this is why we have decided to face the Prime Minister hoping he will solve our problems, he added.

SOURCE: Citizen newspaper