CHINHOYI — Chinhoyi Municipality management and workers’ representatives are at loggerheads following the failure by council to pay workers their February salaries on time.
Workers are yet to receive their pay cheques for last month, three weeks into March. On Monday, council bosses allegedly reneged on their earlier commitment to meet workers’ representatives in a bid to find common ground.
Tempers are reportedly simmering among the 330 low-tier employees who have threatened unspecified action if the local authority fails to honour its promise to pay them before this weekend. Workers’ committee chairperson Stewart Kapfudza said:
“Workers have not been paid their February salaries up to now. All we get are promises. Today (Monday) the workers’ committee was told that the earlier scheduled meeting with management would only take place on Thursday (today) although we were not given reasons for the postponement.”
Acting mayor Busani Dube-Marumahoko confirmed the workers were yet to be paid. “Indeed, workers are yet to get their dues, time has gone,” he said.
Kapfudza alleged management led by acting town clerk Webster Tembo was deliberately stalling negotiations, saying it was an attitude indicative of the local authority’s lack of concern for their plight.
He added that as a result, some of them had been evicted from their lodgings after failing to pay rentals.
Compounding its woes, council is also failing to pay outstanding 2009 salaries before the March 31, 2012 deadline as outlined in a Labour Court ruling.
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