Former Nakumatt Supermarket workers run to Parliament for help

Former employees of Nakumatt Supermarket have petitioned Parliament over their unpaid entitlements.
In July 2017, Nakumaatti closed its outlets in Uganda due to its poor performance. However while being closed, it’s workers allege that they were not paid as they had been promised.

As a way of pursuing their payments, the former employees led by Dennis Angura, presented their petition to the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga on Monday seeking Parliamentary intervention.

They said that Nakumatt Uganda registered a savings and credit cooperative society (SACCO) with over 600 employees whose savings were never paid.

“We need your help to recover the little savings we had in the SACCO worth Shs200 million. Some of us have salary arrears, National Social Security Fund money and our terminal benefits,” Angura said.

The regional chain supermarket was closed after the Uganda Revenue Authority audited it and found it had due tax arrears worth billions of shillings.
Angura added that Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) didn’t help them even after selling the assets.

“URSB who is the receiver has not helped us at all in recovering our money. Every time we engage them, they give us different people to talk to and the last time we met, they instead promised to arrest us,” he said.

The Secretary-General of the Uganda Hotels, Food, Tourism, Supermarkets and Allied Workers Union, Stephen Mugole says he has withdrawn from following the issues sighting unfairness in the way UCHUMI closure was handled by URSB.

“URSB has sold off the Nakumatt assets and we see them in other supermarkets yet they are not paying our arrears. We have information that the UCHUMI money was mishandled by one of the top officials who banked this money on a personal account,” said Mugole.

Having had their arguments Kadaga told them that it was the duty of the receiver to collect all outstanding debts and pay the arrears before doing anything else.

“It is over two years and the money hasn’t been recovered? I will ask the receiver to give us a written update on the recovery. I will also write to the Minister of Gender to find out what the Union is doing, if I get all these responses before Christmas, I will call you back and give you an update,” she promised them.