By Neo Kolane
Two clothing and textile factories in Maseru are reportedly set to send hundreds of their workers home for about four months as they struggle to remain in business.
Lesotho’s firms are performing poorly after failing to secure orders for their products from the United States of America, the country’s largest market for textile and apparel, since the beginning of the year.
Industry sources say although the companies were still producing, sales have been bad owing to lack of markets.
This was confirmed by the secretary general of National Clothing Textile and Allied Workers Union (NACTWU), Tṥepang Makakole.
One of the companies, Sun Textiles (Pty) Limited, is reportedly planning to lay off up to 600 of its employees for four months as it tries to recover.
The company is said to have failed to pay salaries for January this year. It however, paid February salaries without any hitches after the workers approached the ministry of labour and employment to intervene.
Sun Textiles (Pty) Limited has been operating in Lesotho since 1995.
The company manufactures t-shirts and other garment products. It produces about 200 000 units per month for export to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade preferences.
AGOA gives duty-free and quota-free access to the US market to eligible Sub-Saharan African countries including Lesotho. The legislation, which was renewed for 10 years by US lawmakers in June 2015, is meant to incentivise African countries to open their economies and build free markets.
Makakole said they had received complaints of late payment of salaries at Sun Textiles (Pty) Limited and this was worrisome.
Employees who spoke on condition of anonymity told theReporter during a recent visit to Sun Textiles (Pty) Limited at Thetsane industrial area that they had learnt that their employer is working to avoid retrenchment.
“There are still consultation meetings going on between the company and the workers unions,” one of the employees said.
“What might happen is that there will be temporary layoffs and not retrenchments. The company is working to ensure no one will be allowed to leave work,” she added.
Commenting on the matter, the deputy secretary general of Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho (IDUL), May Rathakane, said there were reports that Sun Textile (PTY) Ltd and Nein Hsing Textile were planning to retrench some of their workers.
He noted that following these reports, the union had approached the Labour Commissioner, Mamohale Matsoso, and they were having talks.
“I can’t say how far the talks are because they are still premature, but we’re engaging,” he added.
