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Workers take on Tsvangirai

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FRESH problems confront opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after former MDC-T workers engaged lawyers to demand compensation for unfair dismissal in a case linked to the party’s factional disputes.

FRESH problems confront opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after former MDC-T workers engaged lawyers to demand compensation for unfair dismissal in a case linked to the party’s factional disputes.

EVERSON MUSHAVA

Sixteen workers — who include former MDC-T director-general Toendepi Shonhe — claim they were unfairly dismissed after they were barred from accessing their workplaces on allegations of siding with a group of officials fighting for Tsvangirai’s removal from the apex of the party.

The workers are being represented by National Constitutional Assembly leader Lovemore Madhuku of Mucheche and Matsikidze Legal Practitioners.

In a letter dated May 12 2014 by Mucheche and Matsikidze to MDC-T acting secretary-general Tapiwa Mashakada, the workers allege they were “dismissed without charge” which was a violation of the country’s employment laws.

The demands for compensation are set to compound the MDC-T’s financial woes.

The party has been failing to pay workers for the past four months, while some of those retrenched are still to be paid their dues.

Mashakada on May 16, however, responded, claiming that the 16 had not been dismissed and demanded evidence that the workers had been unfairly  discharged from work.

He said the party was actually looking for them to report to work. “The people have not been reporting for duty and we are looking for them,” Mashakada wrote to Mucheche and Matsikidze.

“Please kindly furnish us with the evidence that they were unfairly dismissed and by whom.”

The MDC-T acting secretary-general claimed he actually wrote to the 16 workers asking them to report for work, but they had not done so.

But the workers claimed they had not been paid since February when they stopped reporting for work after realising they were under threat for alleged involvement in the party’s factional disputes.

They claimed that despite being professionals who had nothing to do with MDC-T infighting, they had been receiving verbal and physical threats from MDC-T youths each time they set foot at Harvest House, the party’s headquarters.

They said the alleged persecution meant dismissal from work.

“Section 12 b(3)(a) of [the] Labour Act, Chapter 28:01, [says] an employee is deemed to have been unfairly dismissed if the employee terminated the contract of employment with or without notice because the employer deliberately made continued employment intolerable for the employee,” Mucheche and Matsikidze wrote to Mashakada.

“You are aware that our clients will lose their lives if they set foot at Harvest House and your purported letters are a continuation of the persecution of our clients.”

The lawyers claimed: “Our clients are professionals who have never been involved in the internal leadership wrangles of the MDC-T. They have always stayed clear of what in the MDC-T are called ‘political matters’. Targeting them for persecution and accusing them of having certain preferences among MDC-T leaders will be unfair.”

The MDC-T is currently involved in serious internal wrangles emanating from the calls by a team led by sacked secretary-general Tendai Biti and former treasurer-general, Elton Mangoma for Tsvangirai to step down to facilitate leadership renewal.

For that, Mangoma received a bashing at the party’s headquarters in Harare from Tsvangirai loyalists.

He was then suspended before he teamed up with Biti and other disgruntled members to “suspend” Tsvangirai and those loyal to him.

The workers claimed that Tsvangirai was in charge at Harvest House and their harassment was a deliberate ploy to dismiss them and replace them with those who are “politically correct”.

Shonhe yesterday refused to comment on the matter, referring all questions to his lawyer, Madhuku.