Durban — RCL Foods employees from across South Africa took to the streets demanding that the company pay out the employee shares incentives on Thursday.
The employees marched from Spine Road, in Westville to deliver a memorandum of demands to RCL Foods headquarters also in Westville.
National chairperson of Stewards Executive Council, Zuluboy Dladla, said that in 2008, RCL Foods invested in share units for workers that were supposed to pay out after seven years, according to the long term incentive (LTI) strategy.
He said that the employees were supposed to get dividends in July each year.
“The second scheme was from 2014 and was supposed to pay out in 2022 according to the LTI and the same thing for the short term.
“Not a single employee has ever received a single cent of their investment ever since and we have given them too much time,” said Dladla.
He said RCL Foods 2020 Remuneration Report shows that RCL did well and has been doing so in terms of profitability but workers who are shareholders are not seeing the return of the investment.
“What they are doing is an act of selfishness because people need their money. Employees living with disabilities and those who have retired also need the money even more, because they have the most needs but the company does not seem to be bothered by all of this,” said Dladla.
RCL Foods Corporate communications manager, Virginia Horsley, said the employees’ units have not been paid out due to closure of the RCL employee Share Trust Scheme (ESOP).
“Given the lack of growth in the RCL Foods share price over the last eight years, ESOP has therefore not generated any value as of 31 May 2022. It is important to note that there has been no ‘crash’ in the ESOP scheme, it has simply failed to deliver consistent growth, which was always a precondition for value creation under its founding rules.
“The hard reality is that, as a result of the lack of share price growth, there is no value to be shared with our employees at the close of the scheme. We have been in communication with our people and we acknowledge how disappointing the outcome is for all participants,” said Horsely.
She said the RCL Foods Executive and Board “deeply regret” that the scheme has not delivered on the intended value to employees and the company remains fully committed to its B-BBEE programmes.
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
Daily News