adminThe furniture manufacturing concern employs more than 500 workers in three departments — Bedding, Foam and Lounge Suites.
Irate workers who preferred anonymity for fear of victimisation vowed that they would resist signing the contract amendments, describing them as draconian.
“In labour law, an employer cannot alter the terms of an employment contract without the consent of the worker, so we’ll not sign these documents,” said one worker.
According to the notice of the contract amendment, it had become necessary to enforce measures that were agreed by management at the 2010 strategic seminar in Nyanga.
This was in order to safeguard jobs and guarantee the viability of TN Harlequin businesses, it is alleged.
“This communication shall take precedence over, and shall invalidate any other conditions from your contract of employment, human resources manual and code of ethics,” read the notice.
It reiterated that remuneration would be calculated in relation to the quality and quantity of work produced and the time during which such work was delivered.
This means that the remuneration of the workers will no longer be fixed.
Calculation of the remuneration will be full monthly pay multiplied by adjusted productive time worked during the period of one month.
These will then be multiplied by net profit after tax made by the branch.
These will all be multiplied by the employee’s scoring expressed in percentage terms from the comprehensive monthly performance appraisal.
The appraisal takes into account customer relations’ management, work ethics and etiquette and individual performance in relation to set targets.
In the event that the record performance appraisal scores below 50 percent for three consecutive months, a worker would have breached his contract and liable for dismissal without notice.
The notice reiterates that TN Holdings is the parent employer of the workers and can transfer them to any of its subsidiary companies.
Last week, 32 workers accused the company of employing unfair labour practices and dragged it to the Labour Court.
They alleged that management transferred them from TN Bank to the group’s other subsidiaries as punishment for joining the Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers’ Union.
Some of the workers, who had been transferred to do menial jobs at TN Harlequin, are seeking damages and reinstatement to their previous posts.
At the time of writing, the fate of workers in other subsidiaries such as TN Supermarkets and TN Grill could not be established.
Efforts to get a comment from Mrs Cakana were fruitless.
Online Reporter