Shoprite workers boycott to demand Sh200m benefits

Dar es Salaam.Workers of the largest supermarket, Shoprite-Checkers Ltd are demanding terminal benefits of more than Sh200 million.

As seven days remain before Nakumatt takes over the supermarket, hundreds of its employees at Kamata and Mlimani city are kept in the dark about the payment of their terminal benefits.

They are demanding the benefits in line with the labour contract signed between the employer and employees.

Dressed in red T-shirts bearing their employer’s business brand name and holding placards, they boycotted work yesterday, demanding that the employer pay them the money including  transport arrears.

Their spokesman Bahati Kalolo said their employer had been reluctant to comply with instructions from the Tanzania Union of Industrial and Commercial Workers (Tuico) and labour dispute handling organs in the country.

“We have been asking for our rights since 2008 to no avail. We have also been involving the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration, but no consensus has been reached.”

Mr Kalolo said the employer kept on saying that the benefits would be paid.

Tuico wrote a letter to Shoprite on the matter on December 24, last year, specifying 11 things to be complied with before Nakumatt takes over the supermarket.

They included a house rent assistance of Sh500,000, transport costs of personal effects to the place of domicile of Sh2 million, a golden handshake of equivalent to  three months of the basic salary for each year of service and a notice of terminating the contract of employment covering two months’ salaries for each employee.

Mr Kalolo said although the manager receiving the letter, he had not responded to date and the dispute was yet to be resolved.  “We want the minister for Labour to intervene on the matter.”