Dismissed Chitungwiza Workers Demand Outstanding Salaries
Workers’ representative Ephraim Katsina said they demanded a meeting with Chitungwiza Town Clerk George Makunde seeking assurances on terminal benefits.
WASHINGTON D.C. — More than 230 Chitungwiza Town Council workers, who were dismissed last week following the July 17 Supreme Court ruling, on Monday besieged the council’s headquarters demanding their outstanding salaries and allowances. Some of the workers claimed they were not been paid going back to 2013. Workers’ representative Ephraim Katsina said they demanded a meeting with Chitungwiza Town Clerk George Makunde seeking assurances as to when the dismissed workers could be paid. Last week the local authority handed dismissal letters to 238 workers, two days after President Robert Mugabe signed the Labour Amendment Bill into law. Katsina told Studio 7 they were meeting with the town clerk again Tuesday, adding failure to agree will lead them to approach the courts. He says they will also seek an audience with local government minister Saviour Kasukuwere. “We have already approached our lawyers, we are taking council to court because council dismissed these workers basing on a law that is not existing at the moment,” Katsina said. Studio 7 failed to reach Mr. Makunde as his mobile was not reachable. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president George Nkiwane said the workers should take their dismissal letters to the ZCTU offices for assistance.