A DEEP sense of anxiety gripped workers at Pioneer Coaches yesterday as the public transport operator laid off 20 more workers hardly a week after 80 others had their contracts arbitrarily terminated.
BY SILENCE CHARUMBIRA
The affected workers yesterday said they were in the dark over the future of the company as nothing official had been communicated to them.
The bus company, which has since recalled all its 30 buses from local routes, merged with Swift Transport and Scanlink a few years ago.
A human resources manager at Swift Transport, who only identified himself as Mutambarike, said: “We are just giving them their letters here and we are going to hand over the copies that we retain here to their management at Pioneer Coaches. So the best I suggest you talk to the people at Pioneer Coaches.”
When NewsDay visited the bus company’s depot at 114 Dagenham Road in the Willowvale industrial area, Harare, only a skeleton staff was at work and they refused to comment referring all questions to the company’s directors, brothers Simon and Hamish Rudland.
Hamish on Sunday evening said he was out of the country and would only be able to respond after May 2 when he returns to Zimbabwe.
All the dismissed workers have been offered just three months’ salary and ordered to immediately stop reporting for duty.
