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Elita Chikwati, Diana Nherera & Auxillia Katongomara—
CABINET will today be seized with the plight of workers who are being dismissed willy-nilly by companies following a ruling by the Supreme Court last week that firms can terminate contracts of employment upon issuing a three months notice. Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira said in an interview yesterday that by tomorrow, the hundreds of workers who have been sacked under the same ruling will be told of a solution to their plight.
“We’ve realised that companies are continuing to fire workers,” she said. “The issue will now be discussed in Cabinet tomorrow (today).
“We’ll continue with the meetings and by the end of this week we’ll have reached a position in terms of the affected workers. We hope we’ll have a win-win situation for the employees and the employers.”
She spoke as more companies continued to sack workers using the ruling made on Friday last week which cleared firms to terminate contracts of employment after giving three months’ notice without any explanation.
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange heavyweight Econet Wireless handed over letters of dismissal to several workers between Monday and yesterday, informing them to immediately stop coming to work since their contracts have been cancelled.
Econet said in the letter titled: “Termination of employment contract on notice” signed by chief human resource officer Innocent Magaya that the affected workers would be paid their dues on or before July 31.
“This letter serves to inform you that the business has decided to terminate your employment contract on notice,” said Magaya in the letter. “This is not a dismissal, but rather the exercise of our right under common law which allows either party to terminate the employment contract on notice.
“Notwithstanding the effective date of the termination, you’re hereby directed not to report for work with immediate effect (that is on receipt of this termination letter). Further, in terms of both your contract and the Labour Act, the company has opted to pay you cash in lieu of notice.”
Econet, which is cutting 20 percent off the salaries of its workforce starting this month, declined to comment on the letters.
In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Pharmaceuticals shed 10 workers.
The 10 were served with termination of employment letters on Tuesday. Among the casualties, the longest serving employee had been with the company for 27 years and the least 13 years.
AGS (Aviation Ground Services), which operates at the Harare International Airport, also handed letters to several workers that were signed by managing director C Mudyawabikwa dismissing them using the same Supreme Court ruling as the basis.
The situation was the same at Mercedes Benz dealer Zimoco which handed letters informing some workers that their contracts had been terminated on three months’ notice.
Over 1,500 jobs are thought to have been lost between last Friday and yesterday in a major reversal of the government’s thrust to create over a million jobs by 2018.
Among the companies that pulled the trigger soon after the Supreme Court ruling are Pelhams, Steward Bank, and TN Harlequin.
New Ziana reported yesterday that at least 400 workers lost their jobs after cotton processing company Sino Zimbabwe terminated their contracts using the ruling.
Security guards at the firm barred the workers from entering the company premises in Waterfalls, Harare following the termination of the contracts.
“Our employment contract with you as read with section 12(4) of the Labour Act requires us to give you three months of notice which we hereby do,” read the termination of contract letter prepared by Sino Zimbabwe.
Speaking in Parliament during a question and answer session yesterday, Mupfumira said the Supreme Court ruling came at a time when the government was already looking into the labour laws with a view of amending them.
She was responding to a question without notice in the National Assembly asked by Kuwadzana East legislator Nelson Chamisa (MDC-T) if the government was considering making any policy changes to cushion workers.
Chamisa’s question surprised many legislators considering that he was one of the lawyers representing Zuva Petroleum against two former managers who were challenging termination of their contracts when the Supreme Court made the contentious ruling.
Mupfumira said remedial action would be taken in the interest of the dismissed workers.
“We also called for a Tripartite Negotiating Forum meeting on Tuesday and we’re still making consultations,” she said. “Labour issues are being attended to and remedial action will be taken.”
Mupfumira said the Supreme Court ruling gives a servant-master relationship between employers and their employees.
Unions have since called on President Mugabe to urgently invoke the Presidential Powers to stop employers from summarily dismissing workers basing on the ruling.
Online Reporter