By Badru D. Mulumba & Lominda Afedraru
Oct 30, 2003 - Monitor
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Girls to get at least Shs 280,000 each KAMPALA � Cabinet has ordered Apparels Tri-Star to pay terminal benefits to the more than 200 female employees it sacked last week. The decision, arrived at yesterday, could prove a breakthrough in the face-off between the employees, popularly known as Agoa girls, and the company, which exports textiles to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. The girls were dismissed on October 21, after a two-day sit down strike. Efforts by several government ministers and labour officials to end the standoff were in vain, forcing the desperate girls to camp at Parliament. Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi yesterday took the fate of the girls to the weekly Cabinet meeting, which decided in the girls� favour. Minister of State for Labour Henry Obbo confirmed the verdict last evening. �Yes, it was a heated debate,� he told The Monitor. �But we were prepared. We are asking the [Sri Lankans running the company] to pay them terminal benefits and any legal dues pending. We are calculating what their pay will be,� he said. Workers MP Joram Pajobo told The Monitor last night that each girl will get Shs 30,000 for transport back home. They will also be paid their October salaries, an extra month�s salary and overtime allowance. The MP said that these figures were arrived at basing on the Employment Act. He also said that each girl will be given Shs 120,000 as subsistence allowance for the time they have spent at Parliament. There were 293 girls camped at Parliament as of Tuesday. Mr Obbo said that the ministry was going to summon Mr V. Kananathan, the managing director of Tri-Star, following the Cabinet decision. However, by close of official government business at 5 p.m. yesterday, The Monitor had not seen any Tri-Star officials arrive at the ministry offices in Kampala. The proposal that Nsibambi took to Cabinet about the payment for the girls arose out of two-day meeting with workers MPs, the senior presidential advisor on Agoa, Mr Onegi-Obel, as well as officials from the National Organisation of Trade Unions and Federation of Uganda Employers. |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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