GWERU — Six former employees at a local catering company, Brytheville Investments, have rejected their employer’s offer to pay them severance packages ranging between $200 and $300.
Report by Stephen Chadenga
In January, the workers won a Labour Court order compelling the company to pay them an equivalent of between Z$45 billion and Z$65 billion which was the legal tender when the matter first went to court six years ago.
The award was granted based on the Zimbabwean dollar which was scrapped in 2009 and Gweru Labour Court judge Justice Maxwell Takuva ordered the firm to negotiate with the former employees on the exchange rate to be used.
However, early this month the company, through its lawyers Jumo & Partners, came up with an offer of between $200 and $300 for each of the affected workers claiming it had used an exchange rate obtained from a local bank.
But the workers rejected the offer and demanded that their packages be calculated using the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe exchange rate.
Midlands regional officer of the Zimbabwe Catering and Hotel Workers Union Gift Kapeko yesterday confirmed the stand-off describing the firm’s offer as a “mockery”.
