Partly owned by the Government, the coal mining company, owes its employees salaries of almost four years’ s and the workers’ spouses were demonstrating at the company premises last week, demanding that the management honors the plan of arrangements they agreed upon to resolve the matter.
The Company’s management however, refused to address the women and instead, took the case to court seeking an order compelling police to disperse the demonstrators.
ZCTU Secretary General, Japhet Moyo, said the silence by the Ministry of Labour was disturbing considering the dire situation that the families of the workers’ were facing.
"If the matter is not resolved, the ZCTU retains the right to mobilize other sectors within Hwange for solidarity action with the women," he said, adding management was being arrogant by refusing to meet the striking spouses and approaching the courts to seek permission to disperse the strikers despite being at fault.
Moyo said the average $200 per individual recently deposited into workers’ accounts was not only unilateral, but also an insult to the workers.
He said President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s emissary, Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu, had failed to solve the dispute, adding that the President should have sent the Minister of Labour instead of a representative from the police.
The company’s management shunned audience with the ZCTU leader.
"The Workers have not been paid for the past four years and, as a result, their families are suffering," said Moyo."They (workers’) cannot access medical care, education and any other services that require money.
He declared that the women were right to demonstrate on behalf of their spouses given the high level of victimisation of workers who dared to ask for their salaries or anything related to their conditions of service.
