PORT ELIZABETH - NEWTON PARK CALL CENTRE BROUGHT TO A HALT OVER ALLEGED UNPAID UIF MONEY

Call centre staff at Ison Xperiences Bpo in Newton Park have downed tools and are demanding answers after the company allegedly claimed from the Unemployment Insurance Fund on their behalf and did not pay them.

The staff of about 400 call centre agents say they were not aware that the company had claimed until they independently checked their statuses on the department of employment and  labour’s online system and discovered they had already been claimed for through the UIF temporary employee relief scheme (Ters). 

The staff claim that, when they inquired with management, they were allegedly told they would receive the money with their salaries on May 25, but that did not materialise.

One employee, who asked not to be named for fear of being victimised, accused the company of having so much “rot” that employees were not even sure of what amount they were meant to receive.

“Month after month our basic salaries are incomplete and whenever we query, we are told it will be investigated.

“Last month, when some of our salaries were shortened, we were [allegedly] told that we would get the rest of the money with this month’s pay but that didn’t happen either,” the employee said.

The staff downed tools on Tuesday and staged a sit-in at the Worraker Street office park, where they demanded answers from management about their Ters payments and other grievances that had allegedly been ignored for months.

Other employees said they had not received payslips in months.

Some of those who had received payslips claimed there were irregularities, particularly for the months of March and April.

An employee’s payslips seen by The Herald shows more than R30,000 total taxable earnings in March which had significantly dropped to less than R10,000 on the April payslip.

“Nothing has been explained to us about these changes to our payslips.

“We perform the same duties but our salaries are always different.

“How do they claim UIF without informing us?,” one employee said.

Employees said they had discovered that the claim was processed on May 18.

The workers further claimed that the company did not allow them to join a union and that some staff had allegedly been working on a probation basis since the Port Elizabeth branch opened in April 2019, even though  their contracts stated a six-month probation period.

“We have had to sign new contracts with a six-month probation period a number of times,” another employee alleged.

“I had to sign because once you refuse to sign, you’ll get a call to HR for a disciplinary hearing and no-one ever comes back to work from that.”

Employees at the company’s Durban branch also downed tools on Tuesday over similar complaints.

Port Elizabeth branch head Mahommed Khadir did not respond to questions sent to him.

When reminded, he said he would respond before 4pm on Tuesday, but failed to do so.

via - DISPATCHLIVE