MANAGEMENT and workers of the country’s sole flint glass producer Zimbabwe Glass are at loggerheads over outstanding salaries dating back to 2010 when the company resumed production.
BY STEPHEN CHADENGA OWN CORRESPONDENT
Since 2010, the company has been making part-payments to its workers, but has failed to pay them anything in the past five months.
Workers held management hostage last month demanding to be paid their outstanding salaries, but their efforts yielded nothing.
On Monday, the workers and management held a meeting whose deliberations company officials refused to divulge. Zamp-imglass acting chief executive officer Gilbert Tapfuma said he would not respond to telephonic inquiries from the media.
“Put your questions in writing because I will not respond verbally,” said Tapfuma. He, however, had not responded to questions emailed to him up to the time of going to print yesterday.
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But workers who spoke to our sister paper, Southern Eye on condition of anonymity said they were exerting more pressure on management to address their grievances. “There is no going back. We are tired of being ill-treated by company officials who are paying lip service to our concerns,” said one worker.
Another worker said they had now elected a new and more “vibrant” workers’ committee to fight their cause.
“On Monday we elected a new workers’ committee because we are tired of inactive people who purport to represent our grievances,” said the worker.
The Zimbabwe Chemicals and Plastics Allied Workers Union’s national executive member David Kunze yesterday said a meeting to discuss pending issues affecting Zamp-imglass workers had been scheduled in for today.
“Wait till Wednesday (today) and then after a works council meeting we will give you the details on the outcome,” Kunze said.