Buikwe factory workers protest after colleague crushed to death by sugar mill

Casual labourers at the GM Sugar factory in Buikwe District have vowed not to return to work after their colleague only identified as Ben was crushed to death by a machine in the sugar mill.

Angry workers, who started protesting on Tuesday, were heard voicing demands for workplace safety, citing repeated similar incidents in the sugar mill.

"We are protesting against the continued death of our colleagues who are mainly Ugandans," worker Shafic Kaifuba told Monitor on Wednesday.

According to him, employees of the factory demand government intervention.

He further alleged that the factory directors often sneak bodies of machine crushed workers and take them to the Jinja Hospital mortuary without enforcement of law enforcers.

The workers said they are also against unprecedented dismissals of their colleagues who condemn the brutal working environment at the firm.

''We want an explanation from the Indian managers as to why the Indians working in the factory are not being crushed by the machines. Why Ugandans only?” Kaifuba lamented before he also decried sexual abuse against women working at GM Sugar factory.

When contacted for a comment, GM Sugar factory general manager Gajera Paras Ashvinbhai said “the issue is being handled by police.”

At the time of filling this story, several trucks carrying sugarcane were all parked and appeared stranded outside the factory.

The workers said their strike will continue until the problems affecting them in the factory are solved.

Ssezibwa regional police spokesperson Hellen Butoto told journalists that police are investigating the concerns of the employees.