Source: Sleep-ins over non-payment of salaries new protest form – NewsDay Zimbabwe April 17, 2016
WORKERS of run-down parastatals have resorted to sleeping outside their company’s head offices to push for salary payments after months of reporting for work without receiving any payment.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA/MTHANDAZO NYONI
Grain Marketing Board (GMB) workers were the first to leave their homes and spend over a month camped outside Dura House in Harare, demanding they be paid over 10 months’ salaries, which the parastatal still owed them.
Led by their union president, Steven Machaya, the 600 workers, who were retrenched on three months’ notice and owed nearly $5 million in outstanding wages and salaries, vowed not to leave Dura House until they received their dues.
The workers said they had no money to buy food, pay rentals and school fees for their children.
Facing similar challenges, National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) workers employed the same tactic to try and force the broke parastatal into paying $86 million worth of outstanding salaries and wages.
The $86 million salary bill saddling NRZ is owed to its nearly 7 000 workers of which 2 349 are former workers retrenched last year on three months’ notice.
They were owed salaries and retrenchment packages. But, it is the remaining 4 221 staffers, who have given new board chairman, Larry Mavima a baptism of fire by engaging in a nationwide strike demanding that they be paid 15 months’ salaries.
Some of the workers said hunger, failure to send their children to school among other issues had forced them to throw caution to the wind and take management head-on.
“I have been coming to work every day for the past 15 months without pay, but I can’t continue donating my labour to a company that does not care for its workers and their families. As it stands, I can’t even bring food to the table, yet every day my children see me leaving for work.
“I am a failed parent because I can’t even send my children to school and industry in Bulawayo has collapsed, meaning I am the sole breadwinner with no bread to bring home,” Terrence Tshuma, a father of five, said.
He, along with many other workers downed tools two weeks ago and have resolved not to return to work until they get their dues.
Mavima appealed for patience, pleading with the workers to go back to work, while the board tries to turn around the derailed NRZ. He promised the restive workers a months’ salary, which they have turned down, saying their patience was wearing thin.
The workers vowed to continue with the strike even after being threatened by management with dismissal.
“We don’t care even if they fire us because as it stands there is no difference, we are already fired. We have been patient long enough. Enough is enough,” one worker, who declined to be named for fear of victimisation, said.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Prisca Mupfumira on Wednesday ordered disgruntled NRZ workers to immediately return to work pending the determination of the matter.
Mupfumira issued the order following an application to the Labour Court by the NRZ management for a show cause order.
A show cause is a court order that requires one or more of the parties to a case to justify, explain, or prove the reasons why a strike should continue.
However, workers, who spoke to NewsDay Weekender, said they were ready to face the axe if they were not paid their salaries.
So dire is the situation that the striking workers have been joined by their families, including women and children, who were picketing at Rugare yard in Harare, hoping management would act on their plight
A woman, who identified herself as Mai Mutasa said her situation was unbearable, as her children were no longer going to school and were having one meal a day.
“If we say we are suffering, it will an understatement. We are literally dying because we are more of slaves. How can the government order our spouses to go back to work without giving them their money? Is it not a form of slavery?” she said with tears streaming down her checks.
“It’s very painful that we are suffering under this regime. It really pains me that my children are no longer going to school. The other one was doing Form 4 and with the situation on the ground, I don’t see her sitting for her external examination.”
Martin Ncube, a father of six, also echoed similar sentiments.
He narrated how things were hard at home, saying marriages were collapsing due to poverty-induced challenges.
“We fight a lot with my wife as I am no longer able to support my family. We have become nomads, as we move from one place to another after landlords chase us for non-payment of rentals. It’s so painful,” he said.
Another worker, Philimon Gumbo (43), said: “We have become the laughing stock in the community. We have lost respect and dignity and it’s now embarrassing to tell someone that you work at NRZ.”
NRZ acting general manager, Lewis Mukwada said the parastatal was trying its best to mobilise resources.
“The issue is quite sensitive at the moment, but what I can tell you is that we are making efforts to raise the money to pay the workers. We are imploring them to go back to work,” he said.
The ailing parastatal, which is saddled with a $648 million debt, as of 2014 and owes $84 million to its workers, continues to experience plummeting traffic levels, which have negatively impacted on income.
For Tshuma, the hope to get his money is still there.
“If the government managed to pay the GMB workers, what will stop them from paying us? We will continue pressing them until they give in to our demands,” he said.