Escom staff threaten strike

Employees of the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) have given their management a seven-day ultimatum to address their concerns over low salaries and poor conditions of work or face a nationwide strike.

Escom staff threaten strike

The employees initially planned a sit-in for last Friday, but management intervened and asked them to return to work as the company was looking into their concerns.

Besides the issue of salaries and poor conditions of work, the souring relationship between Escom management and the employees deteriorated further after the parastatal bought a fleet of new vehicles valued at  K1.4 billion.

In an interview yesterday, Escom Staff Union secretary general Kondwani Kazembe confirmed that the workers, through the union, have raised issues of concern with management.

On the issue of the fleet of vehicles, Kazembe said their concerns have nothing to do with the new vehicles since as a labour body, its concerns are over work-related issues.

Recently, Escom came under fire from the Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) for donating K35 million towards construction of a maternity waiting shelter for the Presidential Initiative on Safe Motherhood at a time it is failing to either provide power all day or maintain faulty transformers.

Escom public relations officer George Mituka could not immediately be drawn to comment on the developments as he asked to have a questionnaire be sent which he has not yet answered as we went to press yesterday.