THE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has retrenched 20 workers citing a sharp increase in operational costs amid allegations of victimisation, NewsDay Business has learnt.
Employees at the parastatal allege that executives from the
five workers’ unions were targeted to be part of the 20 employees who were
retrenched last week.
Fears remain that more will lose their jobs as the NRZ
streamlines its operations.
The workers are demanding a salary hike of more than 200%
and that half of the salaries be paid in hard currency.
The highest paid artisan is
reportedly earning below the
equivalent of US$200.
A crunch meeting held between management and workers unions
over the retrenchments ended in a deadlock as the two parties failed to reach
an agreement.
NRZ general manager
Respina Zinyanduko declined
to comment on the issue.
“This is not a personal matter, it’s about the company and
you have to speak to the public relations manager,” she said.
Unionists, who spoke to this publication, said they were
being targeted for their push for improved working conditions.
However, senior
management officials at NRZ dismissed the claims as baseless.
“The affected employees belonged to what is called the
general managers pool which was created for employees that have nothing to do
after the restructuring exercise which we just completed.
Where is the victimisation here?
“These are people who have already been made redundant and
as a management team we can’t justify paying people who have been idle.
“One locomotive will never be profitable if it is
maintained by 300 artisans. Never,” a manager, who requested anonymity, said.
“At this rate, we were paying people who are not productive
and eventually we would fail to pay those who are productive and the obvious
would happen.
“People will leave the company or become unproductive. We
need to be able to pay productive people and move on,” another manager with the
State entity said.
Acting public relations manager Martin Banda said the
laying off of the 20 workers was as a result of rising costs and not
victimisation.
“Seeking better working conditions cannot be an excuse for
victimising and retrenching people. It is a well-known fact that our economy is
not doing well and as such everyone has a right to air their grievances at
appointed platforms and collective bargain takes its course,” Banda said.
“We are retrenching at present 20 employees who are
considered as excess staff and currently sitting in the general manager’s pool.
“This is unfortunate in that initially we had pledged that
we were not going to retrench anyone except through natural attrition but due
to major changes happening on the market including a rise in operational costs
of business such as fuel and foreign
currency availability which has been
constrained.
“We, therefore, could not continue to have people on the
payroll who are redundant.”
Banda said the NRZ board resolved to retrench the workers
in its last meeting of February 25. Newsday
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