Workers dragged to courts

Richard Muponde
Midlands Correspondent
About 1 286 Gweru City Council workers who have been dragged by the local authority to court for embarking on an industrial action last year over non-payment of salaries have threatened to down tools to attend to the court hearing.The local authority approached the Labour Court so that the strike could be declared unlawful. In its heads of arguments filed last Wednesday, the council said the non-payment of salaries and bonuses did not warrant a collective job action.
The council argued that the workers could have brought the issues to the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere; while the alleged corruption cases should have been reported to the police.The workers had downed tools demanding payment of their salary arrears and supply of protective clothing. They also cited increased corruption by councillors.ln its application, the council cited the chairperson of the workers’ union, Mr Paul Moyana and 1 286 workers as the respondents. ln an interview with our Bulawayo Bureau from his Gweru base, Mr Moyana said that all the workers have decided to attend the court proceedings.
“All of us are going to attend the court session. This will definitely put Gweru on a stand still. We are disturbed that the council has the money to engage lawyers to buy time instead of engaging workers and coming up a with payment plan. They are wasting resources while workers are suffering,” said Mr Moyana. If the workers cary out their plan, their absence will likely affect essential service delivery at council clinics, water and sewer departments and refuse collection, among others.This will affect Gweru residents.