adminRay Bande Senior Business Reporter
TO date more than 600 workers who were on fixed-term contracts, varying from durations of three months, six months to one year and having worked for more than two years, are understood to have been dismissed by Mbada Diamonds. Fellow diamond mining company operating at the Chiadzwa diamond fields, Jinan Mining Company, only last week terminated contracts for workers without any proper notice given.
Kusena Diamonds, another company doing business at the Chiadzwa diamond fields and has not been paying employee’s salaries for the past 10 months, unceremoniously closed shop and rendered 90 workers jobless.
Anjin Mining Company employees are getting salaries way below the National Employment Council stipulated rates and as if that were not enough, the employees are not allowed to engage trade unionists or state-sanctioned labour bodies.
Although they have since started offsetting the debt, Marange Resources has six months’ salary arrears.
Despite that they are relatively better in terms of treatment of employees, DMC and their grading system is not acceptable and the company is not paying night allowances for work being done at night.
These are the sad realities of working conditions characteristic of companies extracting the precious gems out of the sun-baked soils of Chiadzwa, at least according to the newly born Zimbabwe Diamond Mining Workers Union (ZDAMWU), which was recently registered in terms of Section 33 of the Labour Act, Chapter 28:01.
The union’s secretary-general, Mr Justice Chinhema, confirmed that diamond mining industry workers are toiling long and hard for virtually nothing, while their superiors in bed with unscrupulous politicians are getting the benefits.
“Yes, I can confirm that most of the companies operating at Chiadzwa are ill-treating their workers. Kusena Diamonds, Anjin Mining Company, Mbada Diamonds, DMC and Jinan Mining Company have all breached workers’ contracts one way or the other and we are saying let us put a stop to this.
“There has been so much exploitation of workers and this can never be condoned in an independent and free Zimbabwe,” said Mr Chinhema.
In fact, the master-slave relationship of employees and their respective employers at Chiadzwa has been going on for a long time with unwarranted threats to workers being the order of the day.
Sadly, workers in most diamond mining companies, especially at Chiadzwa, find themselves in a Catch 22 situation simply because whenever they demand what is due to them, threats and all sorts of intimidation tactics are used against them.
“Whenever workers in the diamond industry are demanding their dues, they are told that they can go wherever they want, but they will never win their cases simply because politician A or B is behind the project hence their demands will never get serious consideration,” added Mr Chinhema.
While some employees are not being allowed to meet trade unionists, Charter of Fundamental Social Rights in SADC, which this country is a signatory to, “promotes labour policies, practices and measures, which facilitate labour mobility, remove distortions in labour markets and enhance industrial harmony and increase productivity, in Member States”.
Article Four of the charter, which deals with freedom of association and collective bargaining, states that;
“Member States shall create an enabling environment consistent with ILO Conventions on freedom of association, the right to organise and collective bargaining so that: (a) employers and workers of the Region shall have the right to form employers’ associations or trade unions of their choice for the promotion and defence of their economic and social interests; “(b) every employer and every worker shall have the freedom to join or not to join such employers’ associations or trade unions without any personal or occupational damage being thereby suffered by him or her; (c) employers’ associations and trade unions shall have the right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements under the conditions laid down by national legislation and practice;
“(d) the industrial disputes settlement machinery and method of operation shall be autonomous, accessible, efficient and subject to tripartite consultation and in agreement with guaranteed right of recourse to established appeals or review procedures; (e) the right to resort to collective action in the event of a dispute remaining unresolved shall:
“(i) for workers, include the right to strike and to traditional collective bargaining; and (ii) for employers, include traditional collective bargaining and remedies consistent with ILO instruments and other international laws; (f) organisational rights for representative unions shall include:
(i) the right of access to employer premises for union purposes subject to agreed procedures;
(ii) the right to deduct trade union dues from members’ wages;
(iii) the right to elect trade union representatives;
(iv) the right to choose and appoint full time trade union officials;
(v) the right of trade union representatives to education and training leave; and
(vi) the right of the trade unions to disclosure of information.’
Indeed, in an interview on the sidelines of the ZDAMWU launch on Saturday at Hotsprings Resort, the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions secretary-general, Mr Kennias Shamhuyarira, summed up the need to give workers more respects by saying: “Workers are the vanguard of the economy and the country cannot stand and watch while their rights are being trembled upon day-in day-out.
“Unprocedural termination of employment contracts and non payment of workers must stop forthwith.”
Online Reporter