The shortage of fuel and LP gas could worsen in KwaZulu-Natal as workers at the Engen Refinery in Durban have threatened to down tools on Tuesday after, they said, they had not been paid for three weeks.
Engen has been on a planned maintenance shutdown since October 15 and contractors have been working around the clock to meet the mid-November deadline to complete the work.
One disgruntled worker said they had failed to receive their salary for the past three weeks. “I have bills to pay. My rent, lights and water are outstanding. I am battling to put food on the table. But, despite several promises of payment, up until this morning nothing has materialised. We are planning to down tools today if our salaries are not deposited into our accounts this morning.”
Engen spokeswoman, Tania Landsberg, said contractors had been hired to assist with the maintenance shutdown.
“These contractors then bring their workers on site. A Central Wage Bureau acts as a control point and deals with the contractors to facilitate payment to their workers. The contractors are responsible for providing the payroll details of their workers – names, addresses, ID numbers, banking details, and time worked to the bureau.”
She said on October 16th and 22nd, when the contractors first brought their workers on site, there were several issues which resulted in non-payment of salaries. She said data provided was either incorrect or no banking details were provided at all, so payments could not be made.
“Also, in some instances the contractors did not provide hours worked and so payments could not be made by the Central Wage Bureau. This came to the fore at lunchtime on Friday. The contractors reverted to their workers to check and provide correct data.”
Landsberg said the details were processed and payments were made for those with correct details until banking hours closed on Saturday.
In some instances cheques were handed to those on site on Friday through to Sunday where it was an agreed method of payment, she said.
“Where time reported issues resulted in discrepancies in payment made to staff, contractors performed an audit check with clock cards to verify physical times worked. This was corrected via an additional pay run on October 24, and another is currently being processed.”
The workers dismissed claims that incorrect banking and personal information was supplied to Engen. “This is nonsense. They gave us our pay slips with all the correct information. They are just messing around with paying us.”
Landsberg said that although they had been trying to help speed up the process, the workers were hired by the contractors, and not by Engen. She said the workers should first approach the contractors.- Daily News