NRZ case struck off the roll Minister Prisca Mupfumira
Minister Prisca Mupfumira

Minister Prisca Mupfumira

Mashudu Netsianda Senior Reporter
A LABOUR Court judge has struck off the roll the matter between the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) and its workers who downed tools last month over non-payment of salaries.

The NRZ took 942 workers to court for refusing to return to work despite a show cause order by the employer.

The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Prisca Mupfumira, last month ordered the disgruntled NRZ employees workers to return to work pending the determination of the matter.

The Minister issued the order following last month’s application at the Labour Court by the NRZ management for a show cause order in terms of the Labour Act.

A show cause is a type of court order that requires one or more of the parties to a case to justify, explain, or prove something to the court.

Bulawayo Labour Court judge Justice Evangelista Kabasa ruled that there was a technical irregularity which the NRZ should attend to before she could hear the matter.

“In arriving at an appropriate order, I’m cognisant of the fact that I have not dealt with the merits of the matter. The matter at this stage is being disposed of on the basis of an irregularity which can be corrected,” she said.

The judge said the matter can only proceed on merit once the issue of technical irregularity is addressed.

“It’s for this reason that I have decided to strike the matter off the roll with no order as to the costs,” ruled Justice Kabasa.

In its application filed last week through lawyers, Coghlan and Welsh legal practitioners, the NRZ management said the strike by its workers was illegal, arguing that they failed to give the mandatory 14 days notice to their employer for their intention to engage in collective job action.

Over 4,000 NRZ workers, who are each owed 15 months’ salaries, went on strike on March 29 after rejecting an offer by management to pay them between $175 and $350.

In their heads of arguments filed through their lawyer Munyaradzi Gwisai, the workers, who are owed more than $80 million, said the collective job action that prompted the show cause order was a spontaneous action in response to an immediate occupational hazard which was a threat to their safety, health and dignity.

They also argued that the strike was their right under section 65 (3) of the constitution to defend the violation of their right by their employer.

Gwisai said NRZ management’s failure to pay its workers created an occupational hazard taking into account that the company uses obsolete equipment for its day-to-day operations.

The lawyer said NRZ’s actions are breaching its own safety regulations.

“The employer’s actions have reduced workers to beggars and destitute and resulted in hunger, mental stress and making it impossible for them to physically and mentally carry on their jobs without risking their own limbs and lives. In the last three weeks alone, there have been at least four train derailments, exposing the grave risk and danger that workers face,” said Gwisai.

The workers want the Labour Court to order NRZ to pay six months’ salary and subsequent 100 percent of monthly salaries and warrants of guarantees of payments to service providers or alternatively refer the matter to the Constitutional Court in terms of section 175(4) of the constitution.

The NRZ workers across the country downed tools bringing to a halt operations including the transportation of imported wheat and drought relief maize.

 

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