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agreed between the parties.

 

Workers have since taken their employer to court over the issue alleging that they were given a “raw deal” by the MDC-T led council.
Workers who have presented their case through their mother union, the Zimbabwe Urban Council Workers’ Union, are arguing that their employer has on several occasions taken workers’ grievances for granted by not living up to the promises to increase their salaries.
In an interview, ZUCWU Masvingo chapter chairperson and Masvingo City Council workers’ union member, Mr

Manasseh Vunganai, said the local authority was insincere over the welfare of its workers adding that legal recourse was the only way to go.

“The city council has been dilly-dallying in meeting workers’ demands and we have tried to engage them through dialogue but it  seems that they are not taking the issue seriously.

“As we are talking, we have taken the case to the courts where we hope we will have a fair judgment. At the moment our issue is at the conciliation court which deals with labour issues at the initial stage.

“After this stage the issue will go for arbitration if we fail to reach a consensus with the employer,” said Mr  Vunganai.

He said workers were the most important stakeholder in the operation of any organisation hence the need to look into their grievances.

“Workers are a very important stakeholder in an organisation and it is against this background that their welfare should be a priority.

“We have agreed with our employer on what we deserve as workers and we expected the city council to honour the agreement without fail but they have failed to do that within the stipulated time frame.

“Initially we thought dialogue would yield the intended results but from several  meetings that we had, we have not made any headway,” he said.

Mr Vunganai said there was an outstanding increase that workers were awarded by the arbitration court, three years ago.

“In 2009, we had a similar salary deadlock with our employer and we took our case to the High Court, which granted us a 59,8 percent increment.

“That arbitration award is still outstanding and we do not know whether the employer is mindful of the fact that the increments are accumulating.

“We have also gone for quantification on how much we are owed and the papers are at the High Court.”
ZUCWU recently said 12 out of 23 urban councils were in salary arrears, with Redcliff reportedly having gone for  more than two years without paying its workers.

Contacted for comment, Masvingo Mayor Alderman Femius Chakabuda said it was unfortunate that the workers had decided to take the matter to court at the expense of negotiations.

“I think to comment on issues that have been taken to court might be a sign of naivety on our part.

“The best way is to wait for the court ruling then we can take it from there, even if it means taking four years.

“There is nothing much we can say because they have taken us to court. I think we could have allowed dialogue to prevail in place of taking the legal route,” said Ald Chakabuda.

The mayor said they were fully prepared for litigation as the matter  was no longer a labour one.

“I think this issue is no longer a labour matter and I suspect workers have other motives which might be sinister.

“They were not supposed to approach the courts in the first place and there is nothing we can do now.

“Every plan pertaining to salary adjustments has been stalled.

“Even if we had other arrangements on salary adjustments, those plans are now history until the court makes a ruling,” he said.