ONLINE CASINO PIGGS PEAK TO CLOSE?
Tuesday October 4, 2011 : Latest court decisions render operations from Swaziland untenable
Casino Enterprises, the owner of the Swaziland-based Piggs Peak and other online casinos, has told employees that the operation is to close at the end of November, according to reports today in the newspaper Swazi Observer.
Employees told the newspaper that they had received email notifications, which were made available for inspection, and that up to 50 people would be losing their jobs.
The closure is related to the recent court victory of the South African National Gambling Board over Casino Enterprises in which the court ruled that offering online gambling to South African residents over the internet constituted illegal gambling.
Casino Enterprises owns and operates Pigg’s Peak and Volcanic Gold, and has been in litigation for over a year with the SA National Gambling Board through the South African courts. Last week the company advised South African players that it could no longer accept their action in view of the court's decision.
The Swazi Observer has seen the Casino Enterprises communication to employees and quotes from it:
“We will continue to operate fully at least until the end of November as per the previous staff meeting we had with the directors. The directors will be in Swaziland next Tuesday (today) afternoon to address us in a staff meeting on the way forward,” wrote the branch’s manager.
Several attempts to draw comment from Pigg’s Peak's Swaziland branch manager Muzi Dlamini proved futile as he referred all questions to his superiors in South Africa, the newspaper reported.
"Pigg's Peak Online Casino employees have written to the labour commissioner seeking his intervention on forced exit packages they believe are grossly unfair," the Swazi Observer reports.
"This is according to a letter in this newspaper’s possession which was directed to the labour commissioner in the ministry of labour and social security by the staff committee chairperson.
"The letter states: ‘As a matter of urgency, we humbly request that you intervene in our current situation which was characterised by grossly unfair labour practices which the company has carried out with impunity over the preceding years.' The employees were offered voluntary exit packages, which they allege were issued on short notice. ‘The company has never entered into nor attempted to negotiate any sort of retrenchment/redundancy packages with the employees. We were simply given an offer and told to sign,' further reads the letter. No immediate comment could be sourced from the employers on the allegations submitted to the commissioner."
