Zimglass employees camp at company premises

Midlands Correspondent
Workers at the glass manufacturing company, Zimglass, in Gweru are camped at the company premises to force management to pay them their outstanding salaries.
The workers say they can no longer bear the pressure from their landlords who were always demanding outstanding rentals from them. In interviews yesterday, the workers said they were last paid their salaries in September this year.

“We decided to camp here (at the company premises) until management addresses our salary issue. We have families to fend for as well as other responsibilities,” said an employee of the company in confidence.
The workers said they have since run out of excuses to their landlords.

Said an employee: “Our landlords want their rentals and they no longer accept excuses. We have been telling them stories since September and we cannot continue doing that.”

The employees accused management of embezzling company funds.
They said corruption has stalled production at the sole bottle producing company in the country. “There is demand for bottles from beverage manufacturing companies but to our surprise, the company is struggling. There must be something wrong with the style of management we have here. We appeal to Government to intervene. It should dispatch an investigating team to look into the problems facing the company,” said another employee.

When a Chronicle news crew visited the company premises yesterday, Zimglass marketing executive, Edmund Makope and the Human Resources executive, a Ndou, were addressing the employees under the watchful eye of the riot police.

Members of the media were barred from attending the meeting. However, the meeting was abruptly terminated after management walked out in protest over verbal abuse which was constantly being thrown their way by the employees during the course of the meeting.
Some of the insults thrown at management could be heard from a distance as tension mounted at the aborted meeting.

Makope and his management team declined to talk to a group of journalists gathered outside the venue of the meeting.