Panic as Deputy Speaker visits Tembo Steels Group over employee mistreatment

By Our Reporters – Iganga.

Panic grips Tembo Steels Group Management over Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa’s visit to the factory over the weekend.Worker’s ordered to remain tight- lipped on their predicament.

Management of Tembo Steels Group a leading Steels manufacturer were on Friday last week sent in panic mode as the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa stormed the factory unit of one of their maiden Tembo Steels Iganga plant.

Tayebwa reportedly made an impromptu visit at The Steels Giant in a bid to iron-out several pending issues related to the welfare of workers, pollution and quality of their products on the market.

Tayebwa’s visit follows a recent tour of the factory also by fellow MPs who were on a similar mission weeks ago.

A total of over 35 MPs stormed the Steels Giant company after a tip off and whistle blower’s report pinning the company on several flaws related to the welfare of workers,its operations,the quality of their steel on the market as well as factory pollution.

During their visit the MPs warned the company officials to act and polish on these matters or face tough action.

The MPs also promised to follow up on these matters closely which our sources say could have prompted the Speaker to visit.

The MPs visit could have also sparked off this trend since the whistle blower’s report highlighted the flaws of pollution and quality that have been happening at Tembo Steels Group at the expense of their factory expansion and tremendous investments.

In the recent past Tembo Steels Group has been making several strides aimed at boosting their prominence in the Steels sector but all at the expense of workers welfare, pollution and a series of complaints and compromises made in the past mentioning some of their key steel products like iron bars meant for construction.

The visiting MPs included members on the committee on Trade and Industry as well as those on the workers MPs.

The above trends of the Speaker and MP’s visit sparked off fear at the Steels Giant as they ordered workers to remain tight lipped on their predicament.

The few who welcomed the Speaker were all smiles and put up a show to prove normalcy at the factory whilst not.There was an aura of fear throughout the Speaker’s Tour which was led by factory General Manager Manish Khalla who showed him some of their recent achievements and investment initiatives.

Manish welcomed the Speaker and told him about some of the challenges they were facing as a Group among which included power outages and the need to add them a 24/hr electricity facility from Umeme,the lack of enough raw materials in terms of scrap and their need for more incentives from Government for the mining of iron ore in Muko region Kabale district.

Tembo Steels is by far the Leading indigenous Steels Giant in Uganda today and boasts of two Magnificent factories one in Iganga and other in Lugazi towns respectively.

Reports from Iganga indicate that the company has been expanding it’s scope to match with their new initiatives on iron-ore by building a plant for it in Iganga,which has forced them to raise their production base ten-fold.However this has come at the expense of a poor work force in terms of renumeration some elements of environmental degradation and poor waste management which has greatly affected the workers wellbeing as well as threatening the livelihoods of residents close to the factory.

Tayebwa who was vividly over-whelmed by the tour of the huge facility vowed to look into their concerns but also warned them to be take measures to address these complaints which had gotten up-to parliament level.

Tayebwa’s visit to Tembo is largely viewed as a political move to also facilitate the pending visit of the H.E President Yoweri M7 whom the company has been lobbying heavily to have him visit.

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