Construction workers protest over poor working conditions

Over 50 workers at China Road and Bridge Construction Thursday stormed the offices of the Labour Congress and the Brotherhood-Rwanda (COTRAF) –a workers’ union, raising various complaints that include poor wages.Those who spoke to The New Times said work had been paralyzed for the last two weeks, but that they decided to seek intervention from the workers’ union after efforts to involve local authorities failed.“Some of our members earn Rwf 700 a day; and our employer wants us transferred to Cyangugu (Western Province) before we receive our payments for last month,” said Leodagar Rurangwa, one of the employees.He added that in addition to working more hours than required, it’s also difficult for permanent employees to secure annual leave, adding that they also face a problem of lack of dialogue with their employers to discuss their grievances.“By 6 am, every one of us is meant to be at the work station and work starts immediately; we have a break at 11:30 for an hour and work continues until 6 p.m,” he said.After an intervention by the COTRAF team lead by its General Secretary, Francois Ntakiyimana, the company’s representative, Guo Qibing who is the Project Manager, promised that they would revise the payment structures.“Next month we shall re-structure our payment scale and I am sure that there must be an increment on worker`s remunerations,” he said.On the issue of transferring workers to Cyangugu without receiving their pay, he said that the problem will be addressed before the transfer.The issue of payment or salary scale has always been a challenge, especially in the private sector, and on several occasions, trade unions have been required to intervene.Recently, trade unions demanded that the daily minimum wage of a causal worker at village level be set at Rwf 1,500, while one in Kigali should earn Rwf2000 a day.At that time, in addition to poor working conditions, the unions cited tea pickers as an example saying they earned Rwf300 a day.

National

Construction workers protest over poor working conditions