Maseru, Oct. 11 — Sun Textile (Pty) Limited has again failed to pay September salaries for its 600 workers.
Between January and February this year, the same factory failed to pay the workers’ salaries to the extent that the ministry interfered. The factory owner even paid the workers in half, thus 50 percent for a certain period and another 50 percent at a later stage.
Sun Textiles owner Ms. Jenny Feng is reported to have been in her homeland China since December last year and since then she has been running the factory from there.
Speaking in an interview on Wednesday, National Clothing Textile and Allied Workers Union (NACTWU) Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Tšepang Makakole told the Agency that about 600 workers had not been paid by the end of September until yesterday. He however said that he has learned that the said workers were paid 50 percent of their wages later Tuesday afternoon.
He said that the factory is failing to pay the workers and still does not inform them of the reasons leading to the delay.
He indicated that they have on several occasions requested the Ministry of Labour and Employment to intervene and force the factory owner to comply and pay workers on time but to no avail.
“Government is not doing enough, they always promise to call the owner and address the issue of salaries but end up not doing so,” he said.
On the other hand, Sun Textile (Pty) Limited Assistant Human Resource Manager, Ms. ‘Mamokhethi Nkoko said that the workers were paid their full salaries on Tuesday.
She added that since there are no orders, all the workers have been on short time since September 20 while the owner is seeking orders.
Meanwhile, efforts to speak to the Minister of Labour were futile as his phone was not available.
In December 2022, the workers of the same factory went on strike after they did not get their November wages but they were later paid.
Sun Textiles (Pty) Limited has been operating in Lesotho since 1995. It manufactures t-shirts and other garment products. It produces about 200 000 units per month for export to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade preferences.
AGOA gives duty-free and quota-free access to the US market to eligible Sub-Saharan African countries including Lesotho. The legislation, which was renewed for 10 years by US lawmakers in June 2015, is meant to incentivise African countries to open their economies and build free markets.