ZIMBABWE Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive Karikoga Kaseke on Tuesday said impending job cuts at the authority had nothing to do with the recent Supreme Court ruling giving employers the greenlight to terminate contracts on three months’ notice.
BY STAFF REPORTER
Kaseke was recently quoted by NewsDay saying ZTA had been ordered to reduce staff through a government directive.
Yesterday, he said ZTA was ordered to reduce its staffing levels six months ago after a new board was put in place.
“We have received no instruction from the government on restructuring our wage bill and for the record, we had started the process much earlier before the Zuva (Petroleum) judgment was made,” Kaseke said.
“No one has been laid off as we are still in the process of finalising our turnaround strategy, which should inform where we need right-sizing to conform with the Minister of Tourism’s directive that wage costs should not be above 30% of our budget.”
The ZTA, which has a staff complement of 158, only had 28 of its employees leaving in the last six months through resignations or retirement.
“We have managed our wage bill by accepting the natural attrition of the labour, which so far has seen 28 employees leave the authority and as we speak, there is no instruction to retrench,” Kaseke said.
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He said Tourism minister Walter Mzembi had directed the new board to ensure ZTA’s total employment costs should not exceed 30% of the budgeted expenditure.
The board was given until July 31 this year to conclude its cost-cutting measures.
Parastatals such as the National Railways of Zimbabwe, Air Zimbabwe and the Grain Marketing Board recently joined the private sector in firing employees using the Supreme Court judgment.
Last week, unions estimated that at least 20 000 workers had lost their jobs only three weeks after the judgment was delivered.
