MPC staff seek JB’s intervention

Employees of the Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC) have asked President Joyce Banda to intervene in their welfare problems.

The workers complain that their conditions of service are poor, a development that demotivates them; hence, making the corporation inefficient in its service delivery.

The staff earlier lodged the complaint to Information and Civic Education Minister Moses Kunkuyu and postmaster general Andrew Kumbatira who acknowledged that the challenges were beyond MPC’s control.

In their six-page petition copied to Kunkuyu, the workers highlight financial challenges ranging from low salaries, low annual increments, non-remittance of pension and lack of practical company benefits.

Kunkuyu, who on Tuesday indicated that he was yet to receive the petition, said there were ongoing discussions regarding employees’ welfare following a recent strike that paralysed the institution.

According to the petition, the workers get an annual increment of five percent to meet the cost of living and are the least paid among parastatals.

“Workers from middle management down to the grass roots are not rewarded according to the workloads. The legal document called MPC Conditions of Service contains quite a lot of privileges for workers but unfortunately, they are just on paper,” reads the petition.

The workers claim MPC has not been remitting contributions to Old Mutual since 2009, a situation the workers fear would jeopardise their pensions.

Kumbatira expressed ignorance about the petition and said it was done in breach of trust and against protocol. He said management is waiting for government to help solve problems staff are facing.

He said the five percent increment was across parastatals and there was little MPC management could do. On pension contributions, he said there was no cause for alarm as auditors were engaged to check outstanding dues to be remitted next month.