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The women were demanding to meet NRZ’s senior management.
“We want to meet Retired Air Commodore Mike Karakadzai (the NRZ boss) himself so that he can explain to us why our husbands have not been paid for almost a year now,” said another woman.
She said they were very hungry.
“How do they expect our families to survive if they do not pay salaries? The situation must be addressed now not tomorrow,” said the woman, who requested anonymity.
The women had gathered at the station at about 10am and riot police, armed with batons, together with NRZ security personnel had to subdue the angry women from staging a demonstration.
The riot police and NRZ security officers had to spend the whole day on high alert to make sure that the women did not stage the protest.
Zimbabwe Amalgamated Railways Association (Zaru) general secretary Mr Gideon Shoko said they recently approached Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in a bid to resolve the long-standing salary dispute.
“This issue of salaries is long overdue so we had to seek the PM’s intervention,” said Mr Shoko.
He said PM Tsvangirai said he would organise a meeting with Transport, Communication and Infrastructure Development, State Enterprises and Parastatals and Labour and Social Welfare ministries and understand the root cause of the impasse and discuss strategies to resolve it.
“After the three ministries have met, PM Tsvangirai will then arrange a round table meeting between NRZ workers’ unions and the three ministries and map the way forward.
“We are not very happy not only because of salaries, but also the conditions of service that have not been addressed in as many years,” said Mr Shoko.
Contacted for comment, NRZ public relations manager, Mr Fanuel Masikati, acknowledged that they owed their employees. “It is not a secret that we are in salary arrears and we are doing all we can to ensure that our workers are paid their dues,” said Mr Masikati.
He said all their workers had reported for duty and the demonstration did not halt their operations.
“The demonstration did not involve our workers so it had nothing to do with our organisation,” said Mr Masikati.
Last year the Labour Court in Bulawayo ordered NRZ to put its house in order.
The parastatal is affected by under investment with much of its equipment and infrastructure almost obsolete.
Online Reporter