People stage sit in at Sogea-Satom to demand salary

Around 70 people have staged a sit-in in front of the enterprise Sogea -Satom Burundi to ask for their salary this Wednesday 6 March 2019.

“We have been working for over 10 months without getting our money”

M.N one of the employees, says they have been working for the enterprise Sogea – Satom Burundi but the latter refused to pay them. “We only received a salary advance at the beginning of the project. They owe us over BIF 21 million. We have been working for over 10 months without getting our money,” he says.

M.N wonders why the enterprise uses violence instead of listening to their claims. “The police dispersed us when we were staging a sit-in to demonstrate our suffering. Some of our colleagues have been maltreated, others imprisoned”.

N.B, another employee, says they come from different localities and have families to feed. He asks the enterprise to pay them so that they go back to their families. “Our contracts have expired and we have been left homeless. We come from different provinces and cannot go back home because we have no means,” he says adding that they had job contracts during the rehabilitation of RN5 national road.
Sogea-Satom enterprise says they are not its employees. “They haven’t been hired by the enterprise but by the contractor,” says the financial and administrative manager.

He adds that the payment has delayed because their direct employer has not issued the bills on time. “Their direct employer has delayed to issue the bills. The enterprise has learnt about the case via the sit-in they staged in front of the office”.

He, however, reassures those employees. “Now that the enterprise is aware of their case, it will be handled soon. It has already disbursed 50% of the money it owed to the contractor”.