City re-institutes disciplinary hearings for 317 workers

to two years they were absent from duty, in one of the city’s classic blunders.
A resolution empowering management to take action against the workers was reached last week on Tuesday during a full council meeting. However, a number of workers have already left council, implying that hearings would only be done with a few remaining workers.
“Disciplinary action shall be re-instituted against all employees who have been reinstated into council service,” reads part of the full council minutes.
Councillors are also demanding that disciplinary action be taken against the human resources director Dr Cainos Chingombe who is being accused of causing the financial haemorrhage.
“In future disciplinary action shall be taken against officials who will be found liable for mishandling disciplinary cases in council.”
Meanwhile, town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi has sought legal opinion on what action the city should take against Dr Chingombe.
Some members of the human resources committee, which generated the resolution, had wanted the workers to be allowed to work while the employer deducted the funds paid out. The Collective Bargaining Agreement: Harare Municipal Undertaking Code of Conduct Grievances Handling Procedure states that “unauthorised absenteeism from duty for a period of five days and above was a dismissible offence”.
However, workers who had not reported for duty for up to two years were reinstated and paid out for the years not worked.
While blame has been heaped on Dr Chingombe evidence suggests that respective heads of departments failed to institute labour hearings against the workers who absconded work for periods of up to two years. When the workers returned to their work stations they were just accepted back as if they had been reporting for duty resulting in those who had remained loyal to council complaining.
A letter written by Dr Chingombe to the returning workers has been cited for causing the chaos. It read in part: “It has come to my attention that there are some employees who have not been reporting for duty and have pending disciplinary cases, who have started reporting for duty. Please be advised that such employees’ salaries remain frozen, pending the conclusion of their cases. Accordingly, they should not be accepted back at work.”