NORTON-based Sunny Yi Feng Tiles Zimbabwe Chinese company executives have denied social media reports that they are paying their workers’ salaries using local coins.
Bond coins have of late been rejected by most retailers and public bus operators rendering them useless.
A trending 45-second video recorded secretly, shows a Chinese national assisted by a local man, weighing coins and handing them over to the workers waiting patiently in a queue.
However, responding to the allegations, Sunny Yi Feng officials said the bond coins were not salaries, but ‘staff cushioning allowance’ and using a scale to weigh the coins was being ‘creative’.
“It looks like there is a bit of misconception on this video trending, considering harsh economic environment we are operating in we give our valued staff cushioning allowances, it’s of great importance for all our valued stakeholders to understand that these are not salaries,” Sunny Yi Feng Tiles posted a statement on Twitter.
“Some might be shocked by the use of (a) scale to weigh money, this is indeed a creative way of making a quick payment to our 1700 employees. We have the understanding that coins contain the same value in terms of value and weight and therefore the values are homogenous.”
It is however not the first time the company has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Last year, one of the managers was accused of beating up a traditional leader, Chief Chivero (Brown Shopo) for demanding that the company employs locals from the area.
However, the Chinese national accused of assaulting the chief was arrested and later deported.
Sunny Yi Feng employs 1 193 locals and is producing 30 000 to 35 000 square meters of quality tiles per day for both local and export markets.
70% of the tiles are exported to countries in the region including South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and the DRC.
