Castel Malawi to retrench more staff: Further 200 targeted

Castel Malawi Limited has informed its members of staff that it will implement its third phase of retrenchment by March 25 and the information gathered is that the exercise targets 200 employees.

The second phase that affected almost every department also targeted 200 employees and sources within Castel say the actual number the company wants to get rid of is 600.

A short memo dated February 28 signed by Director of Human Resources Naomi Nyirenda, just as in all the other memos,says: “All payments in respect of retrenchment will be made through payroll and this time around by March 25 together with March salaries.

“Other payments such as EIP and overtime will be paid as per the company’s respective payout procedures.

“However, the company will recover all the outstanding debts that each retrenched employee has as at the time of exit.

The company pledges to repatriate any affected employee upon request to their registered homes within Malawi and the request should be made within a period of of 3 month’s from the date of retrenchment to avoid forfeiture.

The company shall honour all requests for repatriation as such and not through cash payments to the retrenched employee.

In the first phase of the process, the French company — which took over management of Carlsberg Malawi Brewery just a few years ago, retrenched close to 200 employees in August last year and the second phase was implemented the following month of October.

The first phase done in August affected staff in finance, logistics, auditors, some in production and some heads of department and the second phase targets almost everyone.

Over the past few years, Castel has been struggling to maintain business profitability due to what its Managing Director Herve Milhade attributes is due to mostly unfair conditions set by Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA).

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