Renée Bonorchis
11 April 2008
Johannesburg — BLUE Label Telecoms - the newly listed company recently rocked by scandal over directors dealing in shares without notifying the right people - faced a new challenge yesterday when a former employee accused it of selling his software without compensating him.
Russel Hawkins, who joined Blue Label (BLU) last year, said he had developed a technology called Mobile Media Messaging and claimed his proprietary software was the key to the company winning accounts with Microsoft and Absa. However, he had not been paid for this.
Gareth Sharp, spokesman at Blue Label, said yesterday that Hawkins's contentions were without substance.
"His complaints are those of a disgruntled former employee. Blue Label Telecoms has no intention of dealing with Hawkins's allegations through the media. His claims are being dealt with by Blue Label Telecoms's attorneys, who share the company's view that his claims have no merit."
Before Blue label's listing in November, the company said the purpose of the collaboration with Microsoft was to derive revenue by channelling advertising into Blue Label 's distribution base.
Hawkins said yesterday it was his technology that Microsoft was interested in, but that after falling out with one of Blue Label's managers, JJ Botha, he resigned in February .
He claimed that when he had asked for his technology back, the telecommunications company had refused, saying Blue Label had modified the technology and therefore owned it.
Hawkins and his lawyer, Stan Dewey of Matjila, Hertzberg & Dewey, said Hawkins had been promised a 20% profit share for deals related to the sale of his technology. This agreement had then been modified to include shares, but provisos were attached to this and nothing came of the offer.
Further, according to Hawkins and Dewey, Hawkins had not been paid his salary last month. Dewey said they were considering going to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration on the salary issue.
They had also readied an affidavit but were concerned about the cost of a high court battle.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
