Council workers call off strikes

In Gwanda, the agreement was signed following a meeting with labour officials on Wednesday.

The Gwanda workers who had not been paid since March downed tools on Wednesday to press management to pay the outstanding salaries.

The municipality managed to pay workers in lower grades their April salaries, but the employees rejected the offer and joined the strike demanding to be paid all the outstanding money.

Speaking in a telephone interview yesterday a member of the workers committee, Mr Sipho Ndlovu, said the workers had called off the strike after the management signed an agreement that it would clear the arrears at the end of this month.

“We were engaged in a meeting yesterday with the municipality’s management and officials from the department of labour. The management made a commitment to pay the outstanding salaries this month end and we signed an agreement to that effect,” said Mr Ndlovu.

Mr Ndlovu said the municipality had the money to pay workers but the problem I was that they were prioritising other things.

“The municipality has been disconnecting water supplies to force residents to pay their bills and the money raised should be channelled to workers’ salaries. As I speak right now consumers who were disconnected are queuing at the municipality offices to pay,” said Mr Ndlovu.

Gwanda Town Clerk Mr Gilbert Mlilo also confirmed that the strike had been called off.

“We signed an agreement with workers and we will try our best to pay the workers their dues by the end of the month. I hope we would have received payments from those who owe us.

“We are committed to paying workers their salaries and we are involved in continuous dialogue with the workers,” he said.

The council has 173 workers with the lowest paid worker reportedly earning about $200.

In Victoria Falls, workers agreed to end the strike after the town council agreed to pay double salaries until the salary arrears are cleared in August.

On Wednesday, the workers staged the second industrial action in two weeks demanding their dues, after going for three months without salaries.

In an interview, the Mayor, Councillor Nkosilathi Jiyane said it was a matter of time before the municipality cleared the salary arrears.

“There is no disorder in the municipality, things are under control. It’s just now that there is a backlog because the

Labour Court ordered that we increase workers’ salaries by 32 percent last year and as such we are failing to meet the new wage bill,” he said.