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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
ABOUT 70 workers at Turk Mine in Bubi district have been rendered jobless after their fixed term contracts expired at the end of last month.

Responding to written questions from Business Chronicle yesterday, Turk Mine chief executive officer Mr Jackson Murehwa denied claims that the said employees were retrenched.

“The correct position is that we did not renew some of the fixed term contracts which expired at the end of May 2017. About 70 fixed term employees were affected,” he said.

“Nobody was laid off. About 70 fixed term employees whose contracts had expired were not renewed. The work that they had been hired for had been completed.”

Mr Murehwa said at the end of a fixed term contract, the two parties simply separated with no other expectations besides any statutory payments that may be outstanding.

He said the longest serving employee on a fixed term contract at Turk was about three years.

Commenting on allegations that some of the redundant workers were on Saturday given mealie-meal and some packets of kapenta fish worth only $47 as part of payment of their salaries, Mr Murehwa said this was not true.

“What happened on Saturday was a fulfilment of a request that arose from previous works council meetings. At those meetings, employees asked for food hampers with specific items for their convenience and the arrangement culminated in the hamper distribution at the mine using one of the leading wholesalers in town.

“Also, for the record, as Turk Mine we do not discuss wage bills or retrenchment packages, if ever they were to happen at some point in the future, in or with the press.

“Salary or wage arrears, as with many companies or organisations in Zimbabwe today, including some news media organisations, is an issue we continue to deal with in discussion with our employees,” said Mr Murehwa.

Last month, anti-riot police were called to restore order at Turk Mine when wives of striking workers became violent as they barred their husbands from returning to work before receiving salaries.

@okazunga