An anonymous complaint has raised fresh questions about the treatment of sales promoters working for Sapphire Trading and Marketing Limited, a Kenyan distributor associated with consumer electronics brands including EcoFlow and Xiaomi, with workers stating that promises made to them at the point of employment have not been honoured and that those who attempt to question the situation risk losing their jobs.

According to the complaint sent to Nyakundi Report, employees are recruited on the understanding that they will receive a monthly salary together with commissions based on the products they sell, but the complainant says the commission payments have not been forthcoming for several months, leaving promoters dependent almost entirely on their basic salaries while still being expected to meet sales targets and remain connected to an online login system used in their daily work.

The workers claim that the cost of keeping their phones connected, including internet bundles and transport to assigned outlets, comes directly from their pockets.

Hello Cyprian,Hide my id kindly.

I would like you to bring this matter to the limelight. It involves sapphire trading and marketing limited which imports and distributes ecoflow and Xiaomi products.

There is a lot of deception and toxicity in the company and many staffs are just there because they have no other job which makes the employer take advantage of the situation. When staffs are employed they are promised monthly payment salary and an addition of Commission for products sold. But staffs are just dependent on the salaries only because incentives are never paid and when staffs raise this claim they are met with intimidations and sacking from the STM management plus a proxy agency of STM.

Staffs are owed several months without payment for the incentives and it's affecting their daily costs of transport and bundles since they are using login app which requires everytime you be online.

The managements of the different outlets where these ecoflow products and placed are complaining of ecoflow promoters of having worn out and faded t-shirts because the management insists we where ecoflow branded attires but not providing new ones.

Promoters are also having hard time whenever emergencies arise because STM management is run by a very naughty Indian lady who doesn't care at all, and to make matters worse the proxy agency of managing promoters is also run by another rude Nigerian guy who mistreats promoters.

The Ministry of labor should check out engagements of this agencies to their employees and also the mother companies.

The concern is not simply about whether a company chooses to pay a discretionary bonus, since the legal position can depend on what was agreed between an employer and employee, but whether commissions or other forms of remuneration were promised as part of the employment terms and how those terms are reflected in the workers' contracts.

Kenya's Employment Act requires written employment particulars to include the job description, remuneration or rate of remuneration, the method of calculating that remuneration, other benefits and the intervals at which remuneration is paid.

That means any agreement under which promoters were promised a commission structure should be capable of being examined through their employment documents and payment records rather than left as a verbal understanding that employees are unable to enforce.

This is not the first time concerns about promoter jobs associated with Sapphire Trading and Marketing have been raised publicly.

In an earlier complaint published by Nyakundi Report, workers stated that promoters handling EcoFlow, Anker and other brands were being paid about Sh15,000, complained of unexplained deductions, lack of medical cover, leave concerns, delayed salaries, lack of transport despite being posted to distant outlets and unpaid commissions that workers said had been promised at 0.5 per cent of monthly sales.

That earlier complaint also raised issues concerning the use of an outsourcing agency and the treatment of workers who questioned their conditions.

The Labour Institutions Act gives labour officers powers to enter workplaces, inspect employment records, require production of wage sheets and other employment documents, question employers and employees and examine records relating to employment in order to establish whether labour laws are being followed.