The Energy, Water, and Sanitation Workers Union—SYPELGAZ—has told The New Times that there is "good progress" in ending the long-standing feud with the public utility body over compensation arising from splitting the energy and water utility company.

The workers in question, who are in their hundreds, are former employees of the Energy and Water Utilities, EWSA, before the energy and water and sanitation dockets were split.

In 2018, the union petitioned courts seeking redress for hundreds of employees of the public utility body who were dismissed from work in 2015.

The former EWSA was split into two firms—Rwanda Energy Group (REG) and Water and Sanitation Corporation (WASAC).

Jordi-Michel Musoni, president of SYPELGAZ, said: "Some workers were paid by REG, 74% of total dues, and the remaining will be paid later. There is another group who work in REG who are waiting for payment after the budget revision of 2020-2021 expected in December."

"For WASAC, they have not yet paid anything."

As noted, REG was supposed to pay 904 people, but so far, 444 are paid, mainly those laid off in the 2015 reform of EWSA.

Musoni said 119 workers were paid the total amount through court decisions "but 325 others didn't manage to go to court, for various reasons."

In general, he said, REG requested around Rwf6 billion from the Ministry of Finance and received Rwf2 billion.

The five-year-old case, according to Musoni, concerns more than 1,600 workers – more than 900 from REG and over 800 from WASAC.

Ron Weiss, the CEO of REG, told The New Times that: "We separated the former EWSA employees into two groups: the ones that are still working in REG, and they have no much salaries, et cetera, and the ones that are not working in REG anymore that need the money more urgently, let's say."

"For the ones that are not working in REG, we paid 74 percent of the payment with the intention to complete it as soon as possible. The only issue is the available budget we get from the Treasury.

We are going to complete it as soon as the budget is available, hopefully in the budget review (period) that will be done in December or January."

And also, he said, "we cleared all the court cases."

For WASAC, the beneficiaries are 821 (155 court cases and 666 remaining workers).

Avoid increasing court cases

Musoni said: "We, SYPELGAZ, strongly appreciate the efforts made by REG into looking for a solution to this issue and we request WASAC also to learn from them and do the necessary.

"Again, we thank the Government for having managed to provide this envelope despite financial constraints caused by Covid-19. We hope that WASAC will be given a certain portion so that they pay a certain percentage and avoid increasing court cases."

At some point in mid-2018, during a series of meetings, the parties discussed a proposal by the Ministry of Infrastructure to settle the matter amicably.

The CEO of WASAC, Aimé Muzola, said it is the Ministries of Infrastructure and Finance that pay and "for any available funds they use our channels for payment."