adminThe 20 female employees were engaged to beef up manpower in the local authority’s health department and have been getting $50 each per month as allowances.
The employees have, however, since approached the labour court through the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), seeking to compel the local authority to employ them full-time.
In interviews, the employees said they have been providing “free labour” to the local authority since 2009 and now want to be engaged permanently.
“It is only sensible for Zvishavane Town Council to consider what we have been doing for them all these years by engaging us on a permanent basis,” said one of the employees, Mrs Linia Msipa.
The contract employees accused the local authority of taking them as “labourers” for close to three years.
“For the past three years, we have been engaged as labourers and only recently, we spent three days cleaning the city reservoir tank in Dadaya yet the management is not willing to give us the job,” said another employee, Ms Shamiso Chirwa.
Zvishavane Town Council acting Town Secretary Mr Max Mugandani confirmed that the local authority was at loggerheads with its contract employees.
Mr Mugandani, however, dismissed their demands as “unreasonable”.
“When these women were engaged in 2009 to assist with the town’s health issues during the year 2009 cholera outbreak which was declared a national disaster, they were providing labour on a voluntary basis.
“This is what is on their contract — that they will be providing labour on a voluntary basis — but as the council, we then decided to give them a $50 allowance per month,” he said.
Mr Mugandani said it was the $50 allowance per month that motivated the employees to continue working for the council until today.
“We have been very understanding and continued to give them these monthly allowances but we then decided to stop them recently when they then demanded that we improve their allowances to $100 per month,” he said.
Mr Mugandani said they were shocked as the local authority when they learnt that the women had taken their case to the Labour Court demanding to be engaged permanently.
“It came as a shock to us to learn that these workers had taken their case to the Labour Court. We are, however, waiting for the hearing date but we believe we have a strong argument as council because these women were engaged to assist in the outbreak which was later contained that same year. It has been the council’s benevolence that they have been getting the $50 allowance till today.”
Londile Moyo
Bongani Ndlovu