Workers Complain At Poor Working Conditions At Action Auto

*Unedited*

TITLE: POOR CONDITIONS OF SERVICE AT ACTION AUTO

INTRO:

Action Auto ltd

P.O BOX 50579

Lusaka,zambia

Telephone:260-211-221070 or 260-211-225277

Great North Road Next to ZRA HQ

for those who do not know Action Auto, it one of General Motors dealership which Sales Brand new Vehicle i.e Isuzu, Chevrolet and Opel All Manufactured by General Motors of the USA, under its South African Subsidiary(GMSA).apart from selling new vehicles, we also sell parts and service out Brands.it is one of the leading Automotive dealers in Zambia.

PURPOSE OF THIS WRITING

We the Workers(Zambian workers of black Skin) of Action auto would like to bring to light the injustices we are facing by management and two of its 6 Directors(Mr. Michael Bentley(sales & Marketing Director) and Ashish Patel(Aftersales Director) to start with:

1. POOR SALARIES:

We are among the lowest paid workers in the Automotive Industry here in Zambia. the managers and directors have awarded themselves High salaries e.g. the Service manager is get k24,000,Parts manager K35,636,finance Manager K43,210,Louis Maliti k34,220,AfterSales Director k56,923 and the Sales & marketing director k56,000 monthly.Workshop Foreman K4,187(when the former was getting K12,000)

While we the ordinary Zambian workers the Majority are getting below K2000 per month with the exception of two ladies from Sales (Lillia is getting k16, 000 and Jackie k12, 000) who are new with Action Auto Ltd whom both have been given personal to holder vehicles (Lillia who is Mr. Michael Bentley‘s Girlfriend was given A Brand New Isuzu KB 6) recently from a trip with Mr. Bentley from Dubai.

The Question we the Workers are asking Management is what criteria are they using in awarding new employees high salaries will us the workers whom have been with this company from start are just getting K3000?Still on the Sales Department, there is a Male sales consultant who has been teaching Lillia and Jackie work has been sidelined by his Boss(Mr. Bentley) who Begged him to come back after he left Action Auto buying give the people his teaching work high salaries and giving them vehicles to frustrate him so that he can quit.

What we the Workers are asking is that the company should hire a Human Resource manager (currently there is no one) and the company should implement a Proper grading system for workers should employees in the same Grade are awarded similar pay and conditions.

FIRING OF WORKERS WITHOUT PROPER REASONS

Workers are been fired without any reason e.g. Mr. Njovu (a Service Advisor) was recently fired by the Aftersales Director (Ashish Patel) because one of a client Chevy Captiva developed a problem with the Engine while it came for repairs in our Workshop, Mr. Njovu is not even a mechanic but he was fired cause the customer demanded for a new Engine.

Ronald Mbewe (Sales Consultant) was also recently fired for answering back at Mr. Bentley’s Girlfriend (Lillia who likes Shouting at Employees just because she’s opening her Legs for Director Bentley) so Ronald Mbewe was fired and Lilia brought her friend Jackie. Alot of Workers have been fired or their Contracts have not been re-newed, I will get to the reasons why there are firing worker later.

There are Firing Workers who know there Dirty Secrets so that there will be no One to give evidence when there deals come to light.

3. INSULTS

Insults, insults, insults from morning let evening. We are been Insulted all sorts of insults by Mr. Ashish Patel (Aftersales Directors) even in Front of Customers sometimes. This man has grown Big Headed after been appointed Director from Been Technical Manager, he behaves has if the company is his, he even tells some customers that the company is his.

This the same Guy who almost bankrupted Galunia Farms while he a foreman there, which he is going to do to Action auto if the Board chairman(Mark O’Donnell and CEO H.O Weissentein) don’t do something about him soon.

4. STEALING FROM THE COMPANY AND CUSTOMERS

These Three people are Stealing (Ashish Patel, Michael Bentley and Jimmy Dons) are stealing from the company and from customers e.g. there is an Isuzu KB 300 LX ABP 8548 from Classic Computers (260-977-772105) this vehicle has been at Action Auto for More than 3 years, they got an Engine under Warranty for this vehicle from General Motors South Africa when it developed Problems cause it was still under warranty there were supposed to replace it for free, what did they do? Got the engine from General Motors South Africa and sold it to someone else and this customer has been having problems with this vehicle ever since.

Workshop Job-Cards, this is where there are stealing from the company, they have create a lot of Workshop Job Card were there are putting Sublets pretending has if the company is buying Spares from somewhere else when this Money is been Shared Amongst the Three of them.

We have a lot of criminating information against these Three, but we will leave it here for Now if Things Don’t Change Within a Week from Now.

Using company money to Build the houses in Siavonga, Ashish Patel is using Action Auto account to get building materials from Lusaka Hardware to build his House in Siavonga.

CONCLUSION

We the Workers Appeal to Mr. Mark O’Donnell (chairman for Action Auto and Union gold), Mr. H.O Weissenstein (CEO Action Auto), G Nader (From EML who is a Director of Action Auto), and the Zambia Labour Office to investigate this matter urgently before these three bring the company you have worked had for.

This letter has been sent to various media Houses, Zambia labour Office, mark O’Donnell, H.O Weissenstein, G Nader and other Stake holders.We want the above mentioned Bosses to Go there are very Un-Professional and thrieves.

The Press: you are free to come investigate

Zambian is the only country we will ever call Home, let’s not allow foreignS to treat us like Slaves in our own Land.

“EVIL PREVAILS WHEN GOOD MEN DO NOTHING” Zambians lets stand together, we are the solutions to our Problems let not always wait for foreigns to do something let’s take the first step!!!

Sent by reader

Posted by Kunda on June 23, 2014. Filed under LATEST NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

18 Responses to Workers Complain At Poor Working Conditions At Action Auto

idah shawa

June 23, 2014 at 7:57 am

This needs to be taken seriously
Kamushi

June 23, 2014 at 8:17 am

govnmnt weak labour laws has a lot to do wit such crap,corruption & lack of respect 4 a zambian worker by foreigners,selfishness,our lack of co-ordination @ work as zambians.Bravo 2 those who hav courage 2 xpose such unbecomin behaviour
CHIKO

June 23, 2014 at 8:47 am

The writer must be Bemba. He is H where there is suppose to be A. My friend, you should have asked someone who is good at the Queen’s language to help you, otherwise you risk being caught and lose your job. However, bravo to you for highlighting these injustices. This is very common in our country. Most of these ladies you see “doing well”, are doing it this way.

Honestly speaking, we still have a lot of backward racists around. The worst of them all being Indians.
CHIKO

June 23, 2014 at 8:47 am

Meant to say:
He is putting H where there is suppose to be A
T.K

June 23, 2014 at 9:40 am

Very sad indeed.
pompwe

June 23, 2014 at 10:54 am

close that animal farm shop..!
Kamushi

June 23, 2014 at 11:23 am

@CHIKO its sad dat u tuk tym 2obzev his errors hop u r perfect.u shud b ashamed 2think dis person is a bemba,1thing rings in my head their r only 2tribes dat think dey r mo zambian dan othaz am sure u’r 1 of dem,but i wish u wont transfer yo stup!d!ty & hatred 2yo children swine
Ex Zit

June 23, 2014 at 11:33 am

Nshakayepo palya libili mukushita ifili fyonse ataa!!!
Kasman

June 23, 2014 at 1:26 pm

Exposed. I hope our labour office will take it up. Why insult your friends from morning to evening sure. People send most of their time at work and then you want to make them miserable.
PARI PASU

June 23, 2014 at 1:27 pm

its seems the Guy is the one teaching lilia and jack so these two disclosed their wages to him being the BOSS only to find that they earn more than he does,Shame on the 2 Zambian ladies if indeed they are doing all that.But the salary of the complainant is not bad, the problem is UNIP left a very weak Labour Law worse still MMD maintained the same weak Labour law now it took PF to tackle this law and we all saw how our own people reacted to defend the employers instead .
FK

June 23, 2014 at 1:33 pm

Ubupuba mucalo some one brings out a vy serious issue which needs a solution,there goes a ….talking about tribes when the story is clear despite simple errors.As if you were born wth the queen,s language u are talking about.malabishi bati.
afcon phiri

June 23, 2014 at 3:20 pm

I CANT WORK FOR A COMPANY LIKE AUCTION AUTO.

KANSHI MA RUBBISH.
vs

June 23, 2014 at 4:18 pm

z author is annoyed.we need such 4 jounalists or CIDs. hey! u tend 2wonder z atrocities. hwever we ave bin brot up by dependence syndrome and we wl never do away with forigners who have less capital than some of our fellow Zambians.z only problem is all who have mane want to be presidents.we ad ba Mwila (MISRIP),Mun’gomba zy ended up in debts…we have the most powerfull resource- physical power.zats y slaves wr picked mostly frm Africa.lets unit & remove selfishness 4 z beter 2moro.we are bringin back slavery in z name of investers…
business contacts

June 23, 2014 at 7:57 pm

If the idea of staying “friends” comes up, think of it rationally.
Ask any business contact manager and they will tell you that to have an online networking presence with unlimited marketing abilities,
access to regional, national and international members, a social and business market place and the ability to
meet potential customers on a regular basis ‘ needs time. Another secret you must know is
that business cards these days do not need to be printed in the common business card format.
True Zambian

June 24, 2014 at 12:24 am

It fills me with great anger and disgust to read an article like this. I usually do not feel the need to comment on these things, but today I feel that I must.
1. I am utterly ashamed of the racism that is being portrayed here. A Zambian is a Zambia, regardless of the colour of their skin. You cannot take on racism by dealing it back, we cannot hope to develop as a nation with such backward thinking. I know some of these managers, and they have gone to school in this great nation and are more zambian than most people I know.
2. People are paid different salaries. There are no 2 ways about it. You cannot expect everyone to be paid the same amount of money; anyone with any knowledge of economics and the lorenz curve will know this. I’m not saying that people should be paid less than they are worth, but 3000k is still a lot of money; much more than a lot of people in a country with a poverty rate of 60% . Especially as judging by the level of grammar and use of vocabulary used could only have come from a person without a high school education which only lends itself to a low income. Your managers will be paid more than you. You highlight the issue of someone being paid more than you, but an Aftersales Director is not the person who is paid the most. My question is why aren’t you complaining that the owner of the company is paid more than you? Rhetorics aside, instead of writing malicious articles about highly respectable people, why not show them what you are worth by talking with them and putting in extra hours. Writing this article was a waste of your time and has just brought harm to other people.
3.When a problem arises, the blame must fall to someone. Mr. Njovu is the sales advisor and if there was a problem, he should have ADVISED on it. Mr. Patel has every right to fire a person who is not performing up to their required job description. If a person is fired you have the right to know though. But instead of making malicious accusations, why did you not speak to Mr. Patel about this? I happen to know a lot of workers who work under Mr. Patel and they all say he is one of the fairest people they know, Yes he swears and insults people, but people show love in very different ways. And believe me, he defends a lot of his workers when they come under scrutiny from customers. He cares for them like children and if you cannot see that, I must question your empathetic abilities.
4. I will admit that I am not too sure about the stealing from the company part of this article. Those level of incomes that are receive are more than enough to build houses in siavonga and still have a lot left-over and hence I must question the authenticity of this claim as it has not logical evidence. It may be true, but the way to treat this is not to make malevolent accusations that jeopardise the jobs and status of hard working individuals, but instead to talk to these individuals as men an women; as people who deserve the respect of having a question asked to their faces instead of blatant and malignant propaganda being posted on the internet.

I hope not to have offended anyone (a hope that I feel was missing when this article was written) as I am only stating my opinions. You as workers do have the right to fair salaries and working conditions but you do now have the right to be so racist in your remarks or to bring up the issue of slavery as the ironic thing is that India was also a nation of slaves as was Zambia. They are two countries that have brilliant and hardworking people within them and people such as the ones commenting racists things and the ones who wrote racist things in the article are poisoning the minds of readers. Let us not take these thoughts on to our children, friends and family; let’s keep Zambia clean. I’m sure this matter will be sorted out in good time and the people behind this article will feel very silly and guilty for even having these thoughts about their employers. Unfortunately due to the pusillanimousness of the writers, they will remain faceless and free from justice.
Finally, I would like to say that I am a proud Zambian, and I do not care about the colour of someone’s skin but I do care about justice. One Zambia, one nation.
Real Zambian

June 24, 2014 at 4:27 am

This idiot TRUE Zambian does not sound but,is one of the employers of action auto,does this article sounds like propaganda to you. You mean all the people in favour of this article do not reason as much as you do?next time you decide to give us your chapatti flavoured opinion,think hard and think twice,otherwise you might as well save your lousy opinion and let real Zambians pour their hearts out

wali tumpa sana makaka iwee
black muntu

June 24, 2014 at 4:47 am

Look at this other stupid fool true Zambian are you really a Zambian?you should not even call yourself true Zambian in the first. maybe true ass whip. I think it’s time you left our mother land. yes it true with that kind of money your able to build a house n all but a hostile environment is a no no for me.why curse at work who do you think you are,if I had the opportunity I would rip your throat out and send it back to India or wherever you came one Zambian one nation finshi sakala,let the real born and bread Zambians say that not u parasite that has been here for too long and now hallucinate that your Zambian
UNZA / ZCAS

June 24, 2014 at 6:26 am

I know who Lillia and Jackie are,, they have a friend who lives in Chamba Valley called Hannah , she is a single mother and these are classic whores that deal with even Government officials,, watch out for a blue Isuzu KB 6, i knew this was coming,this group of ladies have been seen in lusaka’s Arcardes and Manda hill driving expensive cars and building houses,
Infact it has taken long to uncover this,there is more to these ladies that you will be shocked to hear until its all brought in the light,this company needs to be investigated.