The Sunday News
Richard Muponde Sunday News Correspondent
GWERU is likely to grind to a halt tomorrow as the council’s 1 286 workers have indicated that they will down tools to attend a court session in which the local authority has dragged its employees to court over a strike they embarked on last year over non-payment of salaries and other grievances. The Gweru City Council approached the Labour Court seeking the court to declare the industrial action which the workers embarked on in April last year as unlawful. The local authority’s workers downed tools demanding payment of their salary arrears, supply of protective clothing and corruption by councillors.
The council in its application gleaned by this publication cited the chairperson of the workers’ union, Mr Paul Moyana and 1 286 workers. However, speaking to Sunday News from his base in Gweru, Mr Moyana said all the workers have decided they will down tools and 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 just buy time instead of engaging workers and come up with a payment plan. They are wasting resources while workers are suffering,” said Mr Moyana.
He said they have already notified the Zanu-PF leadership in Gweru, police and other security agents of the workers’ intention.
“The council has engaged lawyers but as workers we have no representatives as our unions were rendered dysfunctional because of politics so each one of us has to go to court and represent themselves in this application. What council has done will bring business in the city to a halt,” he said.
The absence of the workers will likely affect essential service delivery at council clinics, water and sewer departments, refuse collection among others which will have a strong bearing on residents.
In its heads of arguments filed on Wednesday, Gweru Council said the collective job action embarked on by its workers was unlawful and wanted the court to declare it as such.
The local authority said the non-payment of salary and bonuses could not warrant the workers to resort to a collective job action.
It also said the dispute relating to protective clothing had been referred to an arbitrator and an arbitration award handed down by the arbitrator identified as Ganyani thus workers could not embark on a collective job action in respect of such dispute.
The council said the issue of corruption by councillors was not a basis for going on strike at law and the issue was outside the ambits of the labour forum so workers ought to have used the relevant channels to resolve the matter.
It said the workers could have brought these issues to the Minister of Local Government or report to the police and let the law take its course.
The local authority said issues to do with corruption were of a criminal nature and the police are implored to investigate should there be reason to do so.
