THE 236 Chitungwiza council workers fired on Thursday stormed the local authority’s head offices yesterday in protest against the termination of their contracts and demanding payment of outstanding salaries.
BY MOSES MATENGA/ BLESSED MHLANGA
The struggling town laid off 236 workers on three months’ notice, prompting the workers to demand the intervention of Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
This comes amid reports that 199 more council workers had their contracts terminated yesterday. Town clerk George Makunde was not immediately available for comment.
“We are gathered here, but there is no management. What we have agreed to do is to come back on Monday and demand that our money be processed that very day. Whoever will be around will have to act on that or else we will camp at the human resources office,” Chitungwiza Municipal Workers’ Union president Ephraim Katsina said.
“We also want to take the matter to court and we are in the process of preparing papers because they quoted the common law which is no longer in use since. The President (Robert Mugabe) signed a new Labour Amendment Bill into Law.”
The Zimbabwe Urban Council Workers’ Union (ZUCWU) also hit out at Chitungwiza Municipality for using a defunct law to fire 236 on three months’ notice, two days after the Labour Amendment Bill became law.
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The union’s secretary-general Moses Mahlangu, speaking at an emergency meeting called to assess the wave of dismissals triggered by the Supreme Court ruling in Kwekwe, said its Chitungwiza members were illegally fired since at the time, Mugabe had already signed the Act.
“The common law clause used by Chitungwiza council was already redundant by the time the letters were delivered to the workers,” Mahlangu said.
Mugabe signed the Bill into law on August 25 with the affected workers receiveing their letters on August 27. Kwekwe branch secretary Lameck Mutama said the purges were mainly targeting workers’ union leaders.
Local authorities which have laid off workers over the past few weeks citing the common law are Chitungwiza, Masvingo and Shurugwi, while Harare and Chinhoyi had their decisions reversed by Kasukuwere.
