Zesa salary dispute — cops engaged

Energy Workers Union, (Zewu) have reported their case to the police (CR 13/10/12) and are demanding more than US$18 million from the power utility as salary shortfalls for 7 949 employees since the award was issued in January this year. ZRP Licence Inspectorate officer-in-charge, Inspector Rebecca Tsanzira confirmed the case yesterday.
“I can confirm that we have a case of Zesa workers and their management which we are handling,” she said.
According to the Labour Act the police licensing inspectorate department is, among other issues, mandated to compel employers to abide by labour rulings. ZEWU has cited nine senior managers, including Zesa Holdings group chief executive Engineer Josh Chifamba as respondents. The workers and their management entered into salary negotiations in December last year that culminated in a signed collective bargaining agreement on January 27 this year.
The agreement was entered into after the intervention of Energy and Power Development Minister Elton Mangoma.
The workers are demanding US$380 for the lowest paid employee up from US$275 per month. However, management refused to honour the agreement before the two parties went for a voluntary arbitration process, which came out in favour of the workers.
Management promised to pay the workers but has failed to do so with Eng Chifamba saying the company was in a “precarious financial position”.
In papers submitted to the police, the workers said the employer had implemented a distorted salary scale that does not tally with the agreed salary scales. The workers accused Zesa Holdings of unfair labour practice.
“Zesa Holdings has deliberately decided to be law unto themselves by violating the provision of the Labour Act section 6 (2) (a), (c) and (e) as read with section 82 of the same Act.
“It is in the spirit of the Act that the provisions of section 6 (2) and 82 be evoked,” the workers argued.
On the protection of employees’ right to fair labour standards of the Labour Act, Section 6 (2) states that:
(1)No employer shall- (a) pay an employee a wage that is lower than that to fair labour specified for such employee by law or by agreement made under this Act: or
(2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level seven or imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
Section 82 further states that where a collective bargaining agreement has been registered, it should be binding on the parties to the agreement and it should remain binding despite “change of employer, change of ownership of the industry concerned and a change in the membership or structure of the trade union or employers’ organisation”.
The workers said Zesa should be found guilty of contempt of court.
“A custodial sentence will be ideal for heartless and lawless people such as these. They are bent on causing anarchy and despondence within the country. Furthermore, they have undermined the Office of the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe in that they have decided to be law unto themselves, violating the legislation assented to by the President,” the workers argued.
Zesa said it had approached the National Employment Council (NEC) for an exemption. The workers argue that it is impossible to apply for exemption at NEC because it is a lower board. In July, the workers threatened to switch off the country if management failed to honour the agreement. They only reversed their decision after the attorney general Mr Johannes Tomana warned them saying switching off the country was tantamount to sabotage and would attract a heavy penalty.