Luzuko Pongoma
Luzuko Pongoma
A shrewd boss used a bomb scare to lock employees out of his factory without paying them.
Jerome Nzimande, an employee at XPress Net, a courier company in Isando, Ekurhuleni, who was working night shift, said on June 1 at about 10pm his boss, Andre Visser, told him to get out of the factory because there was bomb.
He said when all 200 workers were outside, Visser said someone was going to kill them all so they should go home. When they next reported for work they were not allowed to enter the premises.
Nzimande said they were not even allowed to collect their personal belongings. Nzimande, a father of two, said he had been working for the company for five years.
The angry workers said the only communication they received was a letter from chief executive Norman Thomas telling them that XPress Net had been placed under provisional liquidation on June 3.
Court papers at the gate of the factory say Visser applied for the company to be wound up because he could not afford to pay debtors. Visser refused to comment when approached by Sowetan.
The workers have been protesting outside XPress Net demanding their pay and personal belongings, which include identity documents from their lockers in the building.
Bomb scare fools 200 factory workers
Luzuko Pongoma
Luzuko Pongoma
A shrewd boss used a bomb scare to lock employees out of his factory without paying them.
Jerome Nzimande, an employee at XPress Net, a courier company in Isando, Ekurhuleni, who was working night shift, said on June 1 at about 10pm his boss, Andre Visser, told him to get out of the factory because there was bomb.
He said when all 200 workers were outside, Visser said someone was going to kill them all so they should go home. When they next reported for work they were not allowed to enter the premises.
Nzimande said they were not even allowed to collect their personal belongings. Nzimande, a father of two, said he had been working for the company for five years.
The angry workers said the only communication they received was a letter from chief executive Norman Thomas telling them that XPress Net had been placed under provisional liquidation on June 3.
Court papers at the gate of the factory say Visser applied for the company to be wound up because he could not afford to pay debtors. Visser refused to comment when approached by Sowetan.
The workers have been protesting outside XPress Net demanding their pay and personal belongings, which include identity documents from their lockers in the building.