Tongaat workers fret over delayed pay hike

Walter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
The Zimbabwe Sugarcane Milling Industry Workers Union (ZSMIWU), which represents close to 20 000 workers in the Lowveld sugar industry, has rapped Tongaat Hulett for dragging its feet in effecting a 15 percent salary increase for its workers as recently ordered by the courts.

Last month, the Labour Court ordered the sugar producer to award its workers the salary hike backdated to April this year.

This was after the workers had taken their employer to court, arguing that Tongaat was paying them far much less compared to their peers in the region.

Besides Zimbabwe, Tongaat has sugar production operations in countries such as South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland.

On Thursday last week, ZSMIWU secretary-general Mr Faster Gono accused Tongaat of trying to frustrate its employees, whom he said continued receiving peanuts, despite a ruling by Labour Court arbitrator Justice George Smith.

“We went for voluntary arbitration and got a 15 percent arbitration award,” he said.

“The problem now is the delay by Tongaat to implement the award.

“Tongaat is doing all this when the ordinary worker is finding it hard to survive on meagre salaries they are getting.”

Mr Gono said most ordinary workers in the sugarcane milling industry were earning less than $200 per month after deductions.

He warned that workers would seek legal recourse if Tongaat continued to ignore the Labour Court decision.

The firm’s corporate affairs and communications manager, Ms Adelaide Chikunguru, said she could not comment as the case was still before the courts.

Tongaat workers have been involved in a three-year labour dispute with their employer.

Workers initially went on strike in 2014 seeking a salary hike.

The strike shut down sugar operations at Triangle and Hippo Valley Estates in Chiredzi.

The industrial action was then called off after the intervention of the Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare, which implored workers to abandon it while their grievances were being addressed.