Serious employee rights violation in Tanzania ; Indian job seekers please read on....

If you are one of those job seekers dreaming of building your career in Tanzania, please be forewarned of companies like "Abood Group". I am sharing below the bitter experience of one of my friends in Morogoro, Tanzania with the said company.

 

1. My friend was given assurance that the company will apply for a work permit as per clause 1.4 of Article 1 of the Contract which says “The Engagement will commence subject to obtaining a work permit and shall continue for the period of thirty months from the date of joining, subject to three months probation period”. 

Apparently, this clause has never been followed by the Company in case of any of the employees. It seems they were simply renewing the CTA (Carrying on Temporary Assignment - a form of VISA)  that too only for few people for two months at a stretch. In my friend's case his CTA had expired on 29th November 2010 and for one whole month, the company didn't take any effort to renew his visa - meaning, my friend could have been arrested by the authorities during this period for overstaying his VISA.

2. As per clause 7.2.1 of the Contract. The EMPLOYEE shall be provided hard furnished accommodation and the Employer shall pay agreed costs of electricity and water. My friend was provided with a bachelor accommodation along with another person without any utility payments. In one instance, he wrote to the management for purchasing a few emergency utility items for his stay, which were simply refused by the management.

3.  As per clause 7.2.2 of the contract. “ The EMPLOYER shall provide the EMPLOYEE transportation to and from work.” Not only did the company not provide any kind of transportation, they were also strict in making him report to work at sharp 8.00 A.M and even a delay of 15 minutes was being treated as loss of pay. At times, my friend had to hire two wheelers at his own expense for the commute.

 

4. As per clause 3 of Article 3 of the contract it is told that ”In case of emergency arising due to unforeseen events in the family of Employee, the EMPLOYER at the discretion of the Managing Director shall grant a short leave to the employee to enable him attending the emergency. The cost of travel outside the country shall be born by the EMPLOYEE”. 

(a)   One among the other Indian employees wanted to attend his father’s emergency operation. This person had been working with the Company for ten months. Instead of allowing the person to go on emergency leave they instead offered to terminate the contract.

(b)   In another instance, the father of another colleague had expired. He requested through his superiors for granting one week’s emergency leave. Not only was this never attended to by the management, they also dismissed the request as a ploy by the individual for getting emergency leave.

 

5. My friend was appointed for the post of Finance Manager. However, after joining, they demoted him to the post of Junior Accountant, where he was forced to do banking and other petty operations .

 

6. After completing three months since joining, the company paid him only one month’s salary. That one month's salary had to be entirely spent for the penalty for overstaying the VISA and other travel related expenses.

 

7. Another serious offence as per the Indian labor law and International labor law prevailing in Middle East and Africa is that they recently issued a memo to all Indian employees to work on all Sundays and public holidays. 

 

My friend is planning to present his case before the Foreign affairs ministry and embassy with the hope that such humiliation and torture will cease to exist sometime in the future. 

 

Posted via email from anilgs's posterous