By Merlyn Mwanza
The Zambia Daily Mail has written to more than 10 former members of staff, who retired as far back as four years ago demanding that they pay back monies overpaid to them in terminal benefits.
According to correspondence shared with Daily Revelation, the company is demanding payment from the over 10 former employees, even as much as over K50,000 from some of them.
Some of the former employees spoken to on condition of anonymity are wondering what kind of accountants the company has, who can wake up after four years to demand a refund on the “over payment on terminal benefits.”
The former workers have vowed never to pay back a cent as the money they were paid is exactly upto the period they left and nothing more. They have called upon the PS Ministry of information and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to take a keen interest about the happenings at the Daily Mail, as no accountant worth their salt could claim to over pay all the people who have retired or left the company.
In letters signed by the company’s director for human resource and administration Simate Simate, Daily Mail stated that: “The company has noted that you were overpaid on your terminal benefits by an amount of…Whereas you were supposed to be paid for each corporate year of service, you were actually paid on pro-rate basis contrary to the conditions of service under which you served. The computation of the overpaid amount is shown below for your ease of reference. The company has therefore decided that you pay back the amount overpaid within 30 days.”
