‘Essar under no obligation to pay workers’

transferred to NewZim Steel, Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube said yesterday.

 

This comes at a time when challenges facing the workers continue to mount after hundreds of their children, who were in Grade Seven last year, failed to proceed to Form One after schools withheld results insisting on parents settling outstanding fees first. There are indications that CBZ Bank wanted to deduct quarter salaries that were meant for the workers in November.

Minister Ncube said the workers remained under Ziscosteel until the deal had been concluded.

“Workers will remain under Ziscosteel until NewZim Steel takes over when the deal has been concluded,” said Minister Ncube. “When that happens then Essar will take most of the costs based on their 53 percent majority shareholding in the new company.

“It is the new company that will have the responsibility to pay workers. We cannot go to Essar and say ‘pay workers’ when we have not sorted out our side of the bargain. We cannot expect one side of the deal to be applied when the other has not.

“The agreement requires that we do our part as Government, but we have taken two years to sort out our side of the bargain. Essar is not under any obligation to pay until this deal has been concluded. Once the deal has been finalised everything will fall into place and the issue of workers’ salaries will be sorted.”

He said Essar had promised to move on the ground this month and was waiting for Government to honour its part of the deal.

Meanwhile, Minister Ncube said Essar Holdings had availed money to supplement the quarter salaries that Ziscosteel paid the workers in November.

He said the workers were going to get quarter salaries meaning they would have received 50 percent adding that it was just an interim measure for the workers to enjoy the Christmas holidays.

“The Essar money went through (last) Friday and is being processed at the moment. I am told Ziscosteel has withdrawn the money to pay them. I am sure they will be paid in cash by Friday.

“This was just an interim measure so that workers could have something for the holidays. The permanent solution is to conclude this deal. I remain optimistic that things will work out,” said Minister Ncube.

He acknowledged that CBZ wanted to garnish the Ziscosteel money that was meant for the workers because of an overdue overdraft.

However, chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce William Mutomba said both Essar and Government were supposed to consider the plight of workers.

“This bickering is costing workers while at the same time Government is losing revenue because we are importing steel when we should be exporting,” he said. “Workers are the most affected by this delay. They are the ones who are suffering.”

He said there was a need for Essar to resume operations while the deal was being finalised.

Cde Mutomba said the NewZim Steel deal was separate from the NewZim Minerals one adding that the problems at the latter were not supposed to affect the former.

“We do not understand why Essar is not     on the ground because Cabinet has already made a commitment to the deal that was signed. If they were really committed           they should have resumed operations to alleviate the suffering that employees are subjected to. Why are they holding back? Joint exploration can take about two to three months so are they not resuming operations before that?

“It is better if they can resume operations now so that when the deal is concluded they will be on full swing. Why should they hold the Government at ransom when it has already made a commitment to the deal?” queried Cde Mutomba.

He said there were several loopholes in the initial deal, as some of the interested ministries were not consulted during negotiations.

Such deals, he said, were supposed to be done diligently to avoid clashes with other ministries.

Some workers and their representatives last week claimed that their terminally ill colleagues were succumbing to the ailments, as they were taking medication without eating adequate food, while their children were being turned away from schools because of outstanding fees.

It is understood that hundreds of their children failed to get Form One places, as schools demanded result slips and fee deposits.

The workers have not been paid since March last year after Essar argued that they wanted a guarantee of mining rights at Mwanesi where the iron ore has not yet been tapped.

This followed concerns by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development that Essar was getting the iron ore deposits worth $30 billion when the company only paid $750 million.

A team of technical experts from the ministries of Mines and Mining Development and Industry and Commerce and Essar are now expected to do a joint exploration to see the value of deposits at Mwanesi and come up with the implementation mechanism.

It is understood that they are supposed to conclude the deal by 31 January.