Paid or Unpaid?

I have a slight conundrum going on in my head. There are a lot of people here that work, work, work, and don’t get paid. They are supposed to get paid, but it just doesn’t happen, and they keep working. Is it in the hopes that someday they will get paid? Is it because they have a job, and that means something, even if they don’t get paid?


Let me give you an example. Our neighbor (we have a compound of four houses/apartments) is a Spanish woman married to a Ugandan man. They have 3 boys. They’ve been living here for about 2 years, and have spent the last 15 years between Spain, the UK and Australia. He is a part-time professor at Makerere University. He gets paid twice a year. At the end of each term. She works for a bus company in administration. She hasn’t gotten paid for the last 3 months. She gets a travel stipend of about $5 a day (which, granted, is a lot more than a lot of people make a day anyways). This gets her to and from work, and basically buys food for the day for her family. She continues to work every day. 6 days a week.

No one besides the top 3 people at the company has seen any money besides their daily stipend.

My question is this: Would we stand up to this? What would happen in the States? My thought – the company would close down. They would sell off any assets, the employees would be laid off, and no one would stand for it. They wouldn’t keep working. We couldn’t survive on that. So – why do people stand for it here? Why don’t people stand up to the company? Is it because people are so desperate? Is it because there are other people that would take that job if you left it, even though they know they might not get paid? Is the hope of getting paid eventually enough to sustain people? Is that why things have not progressed here as it has elsewhere in the world? Is it apathy? This really makes me wonder. Our friend who is going through this said that even the $5 a day is nice. It helps her get food for her family. Yes – food is cheaper here, but really?