Provantage workers demand to be heard

Provantage Media Group’s independent sales agents downed tools on 8 June and picketed outside their offices in Republic Road in Windsor.

The independent sales agents claim that although they are contracted with the media group, they are treated as regular employees without the salary to prove it.

The media company has a contract with a cellular network and the agents are tasked with selling airtime and sim cards. Nigel Hakata, one of the sales agents who was leading the picket said they are demanding a change in their working environment.

“They are hiding behind the fact that they are calling us independent sales agents but we work under a manager. Yet they work us to the bone,” said Hakata. “It is viewed as an incentive rather than a salary.

If one does not reach their target, they are not paid. How do they expect us to improve if we have no money to come to work. If we are independent sales agents, why can they fire us if we do not perform?”

The picketers also complained that they work without proper equipment and their salaries are below the country’s minimum wage.

“We don’t have a basic salary but if we reach our targets, we are paid R1 900 a month,” said Hakata. “We are not getting commission or pay slips to prove that we are working. They do not show us how we have performed each month. All we want is for them to treat us as employees and receive a basic salary.”

Efforts to reach the media spokesperson of Provantage Media Group were unsuccessful.

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