Business Reporter
Dairibord Holdings’ former employees say the company is fleecing them of their returns by deducting 15 percent commission for every sale from the Dairibord Employee Share Ownership Trust shares which is about 14 times more than the industry prescribed rate.  
The workers said standard regulation set is between 1-1,5 percent commission rates for shares sold under the ESOTs.
Matters came to a head last week at the Trust’s annual general meeting as workers’ representatives alleged that workers are not happy with how the shares are being managed by the company.

Chairman of the former Dairibord workers union Mr Watson Gutsa said management is abusing the DESOT and former employees were not benefiting from the trust. One of the employees said the former workers are being charged a 15 percent commission which is far much more than the 1-1,5 percent set by the law.

“If a member sells shares he/she is charged a commission of 15 percent yet the law states that a member should be charged 1-1,5 percent,” he said.
“When a person is selling their shares they are not given a statement of account,” he said.

The former workers also said the board of directors amended the Deeds of Trust document without involving them in the process and it is not registered with the Deeds Office as required by the law.

Some employees have taken the matter to the police and High Court and the matter is still under investigation.
They said the last AGM was in 2006 yet they are supposed to have one after every two years.

The workers have not been given share certificates as the norm with other companies.
Relatives of deceased former employees who received shares under the scheme are not receiving anything from the trust and in cases where their shares are sold the relatives are not being given the correct value.

“Suspicion is that they (management) are selling shares for their own benefit because the accounts were not being done from 2007 up to date. The accounts were only done after employees sought assistance from NIEEB,” they said.

Current chairman of DESOT Mr Clayton Mahembe said the trust is up to date with payments to workers and the former workers are free to sell their shares.
In 1997 Dairibord was privatised by the Government and employees were offered about 25 percent shares in the company. All employees agreed to form a trust called Dairibord Employees Share Ownership Trust.

The trust deed was registered with the Deeds Office on the 22 October 1997.

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