Company accused of swindling NSSF savings

By Vision reporter

Over 100 former workers of Bright Chicks (U) Ltd have petitioned the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to help them recover their pension savings allegedly fleeced by their employers.

In a petition dated December 17, 2012 addressed to the deputy managing director NSSF, Geraldine Ssali, the former workers of Bright Chicks Uganda, Ltd, a leading chicken processing firm, say they discovered that their NSSF deductions were not remitted. They suspected the company had been fleecing them since August 2007.

According to the pension funds Act, a company is supposed to deduct 5% of a worker’s salary and contribute 10% for every worker totaling to 15%. Last year, majority of employees were laid off when the firm announced that they were closing shop. The workers later discovered their savings had never been remitted to NSSF.

They also accused the management of not issuing them salary pay slips during the entire 5-years they served at the firm.

“This is to request you to investigate the company in regard to the nonpayment of our NSSF and take the necessary measures. Our future remains largely uncertain since we have no social security at the moment, despite the fact that we have contributed for the last five years,” the workers wrote in their petition.

The Managing Director, Bjarne Larsen, was reportedly out of the country, but Emmanuel Anyi, an official from the company, said only a few workers were affected and that was being sorted out. He explained that it was a propaganda from disgruntled workers who had been terminated.

“It is not true that we wound up. We only closed down temporarily and those complaining must be disgruntled because we fired some of them for various reasons,” he said.

Bright chicks (U) Ltd was incorporated in August, 2007, but started operations in January 2008.

Until recently, the Dannish owned firm has been operating a large chicken farm in Nakifuma, a few miles off Mukono-Kayunga road and a high capacity chicken feeds plant of over 100 tonnes of feed per day in Ndese, a neighbouring suburb.

The NSSF complaints manager, Vitus Kato Mulindwa, confirmed receipt of the complaint, but noted that they would investigate the matter first.