Workers take legal action against defiant council

via Workers take legal action against defiant council | The Zimbabwean 2 October 2014 by Nelson Sibanda

The Water and Allied Workers Union of Zimbabwe has approached its lawyers to institute legal proceedings against the Harare City Council for un-procedurally transferring workers.

Kenias Chivuzhe, president of the union, said Harare City had started transferring some 185 workers from the water department before giving substantive appointments to those in an acting capacity, as resolved by the Human Resources and General Purposes Committee on October 29, 2012.

“These transfers will impact negatively on the city’s ambitions to turn the department into a utility, as qualified and experienced personnel are being replaced with unskilled workers. We suspect there is a hidden agenda to demoralise workers and cripple Harare’s water supplies,” Chivuzhe said.

He said the Water Department was the only one not benefitting from the council resolution to appoint workers acting in higher offices to substantive positions.

The union has accused the council’s senior management of wanting to fill the positions with their relatives and friends. Recently the council issued transfer letters to Water Department billing workers and plans to issue the same to those responsible for meter reading before end of this week.

The Mayor, Benard Manyenyeni, had promised to look into the union’s concerns before the transfers began and take corrective measures where necessary. Sources at the local authority said the transfers were political and fuelled by corruption.