Durban — RCL Foods employees from across South Africa have threatened to stage a company shutdown due to unpaid share investments.
The employees gathered in Spine Road at Westville and marched to RCL Foods offices to submit a memorandum of demands on Thursday.
RCL Foods Limited is a South African consumer goods and milling company.
In 2008, RCL Foods invested in shares units for workers that were supposed to payout after seven years according to the long-term incentive (LTI) strategy.
Employees were supposed to get dividends in July of every year.
RCL Foods employee and member of the Ucimeshawu workers’ Union, Akhona Ngomlana, said the company has been refusing to give them their shares for over seven years.
“Everything was signed and agreed that our shares will mature after seven years and everyone will get shares due to them. This has affected us badly in all ways possible, especially financially.
“There are employees that are now staying at home and have invested all those years but all of a sudden they get told that they will not get their shares.
“We have all the documents proving every transaction that was made to the company, if they say there is no money available to pay what is owed to us, they will be lying,” said Ngomlana.
He showed the Daily News documents confirming that the JSE made payment of shares to RCL Foods. He said he did not know the real reason why the company did not pay the workers’ shares.
“If we ask our employers about the money, they tell us they do not know and there is no money. We have been sending countless emails and held numerous meetings but have received nothing tangible regarding the situation because they deny everything,” said Ngomlana.
He said on Thursday was the last time that the employees were sending a memorandum of demands and they were giving the company seven days to come up with a response.
“After this memorandum, we are going for a national shutdown, remember this company employs more than 21 000 nationwide and what you see here is just a glimpse of what is to happen if we do not get a response,” said Ngomlana.
National chairperson of Stewards Executive Council, Zuluboy Dladla, said: “If you look at the company’s records you find that it has been doing well for the past seven years, and this is because of the workers that were standing right before you crying.
“As we speak, some are at work making sure that the company is up and running, still making more money for the company and that shows how considerate we are as employees, we have been patient enough,” said Dladla.
RCL Foods Corporate communications manager, Virginia Horsley, said the employees’ units have not been paid out due to the closure of the RCL employee Share Trust Scheme (ESOP).
“Given the lack of growth in the RCL Foods share price over the last eight years, ESOP has therefore not generated any value as of 31 May 2022. It is important to note that there has been no “crash” in the ESOP scheme, it has simply failed to deliver consistent growth, which was always a precondition for value creation under its founding rules.
“The hard reality is that, as a result of the lack of share price growth, there is no value to be shared with our employees at the close of the scheme. We have been in communication with our people and we acknowledge how disappointing the outcome is for all participants.
“Our people are the life of our business and we have always worked to ensure their continued welfare. Even though our ESOP scheme has been unable to deliver the value intended, we have continued to support our people in other ways, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Horsely.
She said, that RCL Foods’s executive and board deeply regret that the scheme has not delivered the intended value to employees and the company remains fully committed to its B-BBEE programmes.
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