Absence of company boards irks unions

bargaining difficult.
The Communication and Allied Workers Union said management at TelOne, Zimpost and NetOne walked away from the National Employment Council taking advantage of the absence of boards despite the Labour Act which compels them to be in the NEC.
Union secretary-general Mr Christopher Chizura said this while giving oral evidence before a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Service.
Mazowe South MP, Cde Margaret Zinye-mba (Zanu-PF) chairs the committee.
“So when you fail to agree with the management, you can’t go to the board but to the minister. As a trade union we don’t want to deal with ministers but with the boards,” he said.
“We first went to (Minister) Chamisa who said he was not responsible. We then went to Minister Goche who told us that he was attending a funeral and we have not managed to meet him to date.”
Union president Mr Lovemore Matombo said the failure to have constituted boards has seen management refusing to comply with salary awards that would have been given by arbitrators.
This, he said, leaves them with nowhere to go.
“We have written to the minister and he has not responded about the issue of the board for these parastatals,” he said.
Mr Matombo said TelOne was using general workers to do technical work like repairing faults after the bulk of the workers were fired at the height of an industrial action in 2004.
“Ask a person who comes to attend your fault his job description, you will notice that he is a general worker,” he said.
Earlier, Zimbabwe Energy Workers Union president Mrs Angeline Chitambo complained of meddling by ministers in collective bargaining agreements.
She said former Energy and Power Development Minister Elias Mudzuri arbitrarily slashed salary awards that had been agreed by the two parties during negotiations, resulting in them approaching the courts.
“(Minister) Mudzuri said whether it’s right or wrong what I said is final. When (Elton) Mangoma came in he said my hands are tied. If a certain minister took a decision, who am I to reverse that. This is what we are challenging,” she said.
Mrs Chitambo said health and safety rules were not properly followed as some workers were injured in hired cars that would have been enlisted to do operational work without making necessary fitness checks.
“Zesa has no vehicles because it only has posh cars for managers and relies on hired cars for the field operations,” she said.
She implored legislators and senior Government officials to pay their bills saying non-payment was contributing to the poor salaries they were earning.