Rai Plywoods on the verge of collapse;Over 2,000 employees jobless!
Rai Plywoods (K) Ltd scales down production for lack of raw materials;thousands of employees affected /Image Courtesy
The Rai Plywoods Kenya Ltd a company based in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu is on the verge of collapsing.
The Giant Company that had over 3,000 employees can only support barely 300 workers, who are currently at home, struggling with delayed salaries and salary arrears.
Employees in this company have been working in deplorable conditions, many say they have been forced to work without personal protective equipment such as nose masks ,overalls and hearing protective devices ,
“For the last ten years this company has retrenched more the half of the staff, many departments have since been closed and employees rendered jobless ,we have not had any protective devices as we work around the machines, The situation has gotten worse “Said one of the employees who did not disclose his name for fear of victimization.
We have not had salaries for the last two months, even for the few remaining staff, the company is in a limbo. He added
The Rai Plywoods, once a leading manufacturer and supplier of Veneer & Ordinary, Plywood, Clipboards, Doors, Block boards, Ceiling boards, Melamine boards, Parquet flooring, furniture, Polypropylene woven bags is suffering poor management and lack of raw materials.
A moratorium imposed on logging of forest products in 2018 by the government led to a 92 percent drop in total sale of Timber to 10,700 true cubic meters from 144,200 true cubic meters a year earlier.
Total area under state forest plantation increased from 141.6 thousand hectares in 2018 to 147.6 thousand hectares in 2019.
The ban however negatively affected the production at Rai Plywoods for lack of raw materials ,with most of the customers now preferring imported cheap timber products especially from China .
The scaling down of production at the Rai Plywoods has caused massive job losses.
The Plywood department at the company has shut temporarily and over 1,000 employees sent home, the company is currently operating below optimal.
An Investigation conducted by Hubzmedia indicates that some of the best employees are earning as much as Sh.30,000 with the least paid casual laborer pocketing between Sh. 800-1000 daily.
However the Labour union in the company has been weakened by poor management, with most of the employees threatened and harassed by the company’s supervisor who has the powers to interdict employees for 30 days,
“In this company workers have no right to question anything less you get interdicted ,we Signed a Collective bargaining agreement (CBA) four years ago its yet to be implemented fully, there are no considerations for Job groups as well ,things are done unprofessionally “Said an employee and a member of the Labour Union at the Rai Plywood Company.
Efforts to engage the management bore no fruits.
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