Representatives of Sino Hydro Corporation workers are
mulling suing the power company for failing to ensure the safety of the
employees against coronavirus, it has been learnt.
Sino Hydro, a Hwange-based Chinese contractor working on
the multimillion dollar expansion of Hwange Thermal Power Station, was exempted
from the 21-day lockdown that commenced on March 30 and immediately ordered
hundreds of its workers to remain on site.
Officially, Zimbabwe has confirmed 13 cases of people
infected with coronavirus or Covid-19 with three fatalities so far.
The Chinese company was awarded the tender to construct
units 7 and 8 at Hwange Power Station as part of a US$1,4 billion expansion
project, after signing a deal with the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) that is
meant to add a 600-megawatt generation capacity to the national grid.
The company assembled its 400-strong workforce and housed
the workers in temporary shelters at the site to ensure continued supply of
labour during the lockdown and enable the timely completion of the project,
according to an internal notice seen by The Standard.
“To ensure this project can generate electricity for the
country as soon as possible, site works should not be stopped thoroughly
(sic),” says part of the notice. “Employees are encouraged to go on working at
site.”
The workers, however, fear that the virus, which has killed
thousands throughout the world since December last year, could easily spread at
the site because they have been forced to live under overcrowded and unhygienic
conditions.
While the government and World Health Organisation have
repeatedly urged social distancing as a method to break the corona virus
transmission chain, the employees are living in squashed makeshift zinc
shelters.
A Sino Hydro artisan, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said the workers, most of whom are on contract and fear losing their jobs if
they protest, were not screened for Covid-19 before they were taken to the
matchbox shelters, which accommodate an average six people each.
“Our bosses are only worried about reaching their targets,”
the artisan from the engineering department said.
“Several employees from management level refused to report
for work because their full-time contracts cannot be terminated as easily as
ours.”
He claimed that as many as 60 people share one toilet and
the bathroom floors flood easily. The workers also share plates at the staff
canteen
“Social distancing is impossible here because we queue for
food and share plates at the canteen,” he claimed.
“We fear for our lives, but there is nothing we can do
because our supervisors warned us that those who do not come to camp here
risked their contracts being terminated.”
An HIV-positive employee said he had been forced to default
on his antiretroviral treatment, which he left at home when he was summoned to
the site and subsequently discovered he could not go back to collect it.
He added that a number of his colleagues suffer underlying
conditions such as tuberculosis yet they were being crammed together.
This is despite earlier promises by the ZPC management to
investigate labour malpractices at Sino Hydro, its contractee.
The workers also complained about long working hours,
saying their employer was now taking advantage of the fact that they were
camped at the site.
“We work without rest throughout the week, but they don’t
pay us for overtime. We are supposed to work for 44 hours per week, but we
stretch to even 65 hours.
“I’m afraid that coronavirus will affect me while still
here and I am also worried about my wife whom I left behind nursing our newly
born child and the other one who suffers from autism.
“We wish government could intervene and ensure that we get
protective clothing, hand sanitisers and befitting salaries since our lives are
at risk,” said another employee.
Muchapiwa Mazarura, the Zimbabwe Construction and Allied
Trades Workers’ Union (Zcatwu) secretary-general, said they were worried about
the plight of the Hydro Sino workers, but could not take immediate action due
to the ongoing lockdown.
Mazarura said they were not opposed to the employees
working during the lockdown, but were unsettled by their living conditions that
exposed them to Covid-19.
Zcatwu is now contemplating legal action against the
Chinese contractor.
“We are now waiting for the lockdown to end so that we
engage the Labour ministry and even the courts on this matter because this is completely
against the labour laws in the country,” Mazarura said.
“We are appealing to the government to monitor this
situation in Hwange before anything catastrophic happens as people’s lives
should be put first,” he added.
Before the lockdown, the union was already at loggerheads
with Sino Hydro over alleged wanton abuse of workers’ rights.
A recent investigation by The Standard, which collaborated
with Information for Development Trust, a non-profit organisation helping
journalists unearth corruption and bad governance, revealed that employees at
the project were routinely exposed to life-threatening working conditions.
Correspondence between Zcatwu and Sino Hydro dating as far
back as March 2019 showed that the union tried to engage ZPC and the Chinese
contractor over the alleged abuses in vain.
The workers’ grievances include poor remuneration, use of
unapproved contract forms, non-provision of protective clothing and unfair
dismissal of employees.
In November last year, Remington Katsumbe died after
falling from faulty scaffolding, while another Sino Hydro worker, Brighton
Share, lost his fingers last month while operating a pole machine.
Hwange Central legislator Daniel Molokele in a recent
statement said he was “extremely concerned and worried” that Sino Hydro and
another Chinese company, Jian Zhongsom, were failing to protect their workers
from coronavirus.
Contacted for comment, Sino Hydro/ZPC project manager
Forbes Chanakira said he had no authority to give a comment and directed
queries to ZPC spokesperson Fullard Gwasira, who did not respond to questions
sent to him. Standard
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