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Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
STRIKING National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) employees have rejected an offer by management to pay them $330 to return to work and demanded to be paid at least six months’ outstanding salaries before they can report for duty. The workers delivered a petition to the parastatal’s general manager Lewis Mukwada and the board chairperson Larry Mavima last week, who then agreed to meet them.

The workers have gone for more than 15 months without being paid. Mavima and the management had two separate consultative meetings; first with the striking workers and then with NRZ workers unions on Thursday last week.

The meetings, however, did not yield any result after the workers rejected $330 offered to each of them to return to work. The workers accused NRZ management of not being serious about their welfare and demanded at least six months salaries before they report for work.

Mavima yesterday said the parastatal did not have the money being demanded by the employees. “This case is before the courts but we will not stop talking to our employees to find common ground. Unfortunately the money that the workers demanded is not there. The only way to generate money is for them to come back to work.

“The money that is there has been generated by those who’re coming to work. It’s therefore not fair for us to pay those who are on strike. We give first preference to those who are working,” said Mavima. He said if the parastatal had access to the money that is being demanded by the workers, the parastatal would pay them for the situation to normalise.

Zimbabwe Amalgamated Railway Workers Union (ZARWU) president Kamurai Moyo claimed that during their meeting, Mavima urged workers to return back to work without offering anything. “During our meeting Mavima said they wanted the workers to report back to work. We told him that the workers were prepared to come back to work but they want to be given money first. The workers are suffering, There’s no money to pay school fees, buy food, pay rent and bills as well as service loans,” said Moyo.

He said management must come up with a sustainable way to pay workers their dues.