THE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) board has threatened to fire all striking employees if they do not return to work immediately.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
NRZ board chairman, Larry Mavima told NewsDay yesterday that the salary strike by workers had been rendered illegal by a show cause order issued by Public Service minister Prisca Mupfumira last month.
Over 4 000 NRZ workers across the country have been on strike for almost two months, protesting non-payment of their salaries for the past 15 months.
“We will fire people who are still on strike following the confirmation of the show cause order. The necessary steps will be taken to ensure the law is followed,” Mavima said.
The workers have vowed to continue with the industrial action and last week described Mupfumira’s show cause order as “a non-event”.
“For 53 days, management has failed to pay us anything or to show us a plan on how they propose to pay our wages. How do we pay rentals, feed our children and report for work?” Tafadzwa Bunu, one of the co-ordinators of the demonstration, said.
The workers accused management of hiring retired workers and paying them $200 per month at their expense.
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Mavima said he was willing to engage the workers’ unions and deal with their problems on condition they reported for duty.
“We will not pay people who are not coming to work. Ships are offloading maize and trains have no drivers, so how do they want us to pay them when they are not coming to work? We will pay those who are reporting for duty.
“I am ready to meet them and we have asked them for a meeting on Thursday, and I hope they come and we can chart a way forward,” he said.
NRZ owes its workers more than $87 million in outstanding salaries and wages.
