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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Victoria Falls Municipality has appealed to the Supreme Court against a Labour Court order compelling it to reduce allowances for top managers and raise the basic salaries for all workers.

According to court documents in possession of The Chronicle, in 2012 the municipality engaged a consultancy firm to carry out a job evaluation exercise which established that allowances for top managers were too high.

On February 5 last year, there was a recommendation that the allowances for top managers be reduced from 30 percent to 10 percent of basic pay and that not more than four allowances should be paid towards one job.

The recommendation was supposed to be effected with effect from January 2015 and council adopted the decision but deferred implementing it indefinitely.

Workers, under the banner of Zimbabwe Urban Councils Workers’ Union (ZUCWU), took the matter for arbitration and the arbitrator, a Mrs J Mehlo, ordered the local authority to implement the recommendations of the job evaluation exercise.

The municipality appealed to the Labour Court but the appeal was dismissed with costs.

“The management hiked allowances and allegedly pampered themselves with new vehicles and I pads which didn’t go down well with employees. The matter then went for arbitration where it was ordered that the recommendations be implemented by a given date. This is what aggrieves the appellant. The points raised in limine are hereby taken and the appeal is dismissed with costs,” said Labour Court judge Mrs Mercy Moya-Matshanga dismissing the appeal.

The municipality has since appealed to the Supreme Court arguing that effecting the recommendations would increase salaries by 23 percent, which is unsustainable.

“We believe therefore that there are fair chances of winning the case on appeal because the court will look at the merits of the case not just preliminary points. The council files an appeal against the judgment of the Labour Court,” reads part of the notice of appeal to the Supreme Court.The case is yet to be set down for hearing.Victoria Falls managers recently approached the courts to challenge the slashing of their salaries and the matter is yet to be concluded.