Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel) has said 1,000 out of the 2,400 retrenched workers whose employment has been terminated after the parastatal firm's partial privatisation have been paid their retrenchment packages.

This is according to the interim chief operations officer under the new majority shareholders, Lap Green Networks, Mukela Muyunda.

But some retrenched Zamtel employees have complained that they have not received their money within 48 hours after being issued with letters of termination as agreed between management and union representatives when negotiating their retrenchment packages.

Mr Muyunda, who is the former managing director of Zamtel, said management had been working hard to ensure that the process progressed smoothly.

"Zamtel operations are countrywide and the centre for processing terminal benefits was set up in Lusaka.

"The logistics of sending out clearance forms and termination letters and receiving them back into Lusaka from all over the country has caused some delays in some cases," he said.

In response to a Press query, Mr Muyunda also said after the takeover of majority shares, Zamtel management had categorically stated that it was not ready to re-engage all the employees.

He, however, said the number of retrenched employees who were expected to be re-engaged was expected to increase as the company operations improved.

He said it is a well known fact that the Zamtel workforce was bloated, adding that was the reason why the company had been spending close to 70 per cent of its turnover on emoluments.

Mr Muyunda said most companies spent between 25 and 30 per cent on labour costs and the situation at Zamtel could not be sustainable.

"That is why the company was practically insolvent. In order to turn it around it is critical to have the optimal size of staff. No doubt as the business grows, the head count is likely to also grow proportionately," he said.

Mr Muyunda said the majority of Zamtel employees after privatisation would be Zambians although management was free to appoint managers best suited to fulfill the objectives of the company.

He also said it was not true that the new Zamtel owners, Lap Green Networks had engaged a foreign national to work as head of human resources.

However, some Zamtel employees said they doubted claims by some commercial banks that they were undertaking a verification process with the aim of blocking some potential "ghost" workers from accessing the payments because the process was taking unnecessarily long.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Communication Workers (NUCW) leadership has accused Zamtel management of deliberately sidelining it in the transition process after signing the privatisation deal between Zambia Development Agency and the Lap Green Network of Libya.

NUCW general secretary Clement Kasonde said in an interview in Ndola that the union did not regret supporting the privatisation of Zamtel but it was not happy with the manner in which the transition process was being implemented. But Zamtel management denied the allegation.