More than 2,000 workers have blocked the main entrance to the mine for the last two weeks after embarking on a wildcat strike in protest against failure by management to pay salaries since the beginning of the year. The Zimbabwean on Tuesday was informed that the now largely bankrupt company has failed to pay workers since January and has randomly selected a few workers each month to pay them meagre monthly stipends of as low as US$30. It has since emerged some of the workers are now demanding that the Ssate-run multimillion-dollar asbestos producer be returned its former owner, Mutumwa Mawere. Since January, the company has made only three pay outs and only to a quarter of the 2,000-strong workforce.
The state-appointed SMM administrator, Afaras Gwaradzimba, dispatched a high-powered delegation of his aides to the mine last Thursday, to break the deadlock.
The Zimbabwean on Tuesday was told all-day meetings between management, officials from the President’s Office, police and workers representatives have yielded nothing so far.
Workers rejected management’s pledge to pay full August salaries only for grades 1-10 (junior) employees and 50 percent of August salaries for grades 11+ (senior) employees as from September 14. Management says it has no money to pay the workers but claims an American customer has promised to disburse US$65million only on condition that workers return to work first. This was promptly rejected by the workers. In desperation, management has started threatening workers with dismissal if they fail to report for duty by Friday, but they have not budged. Riot police have been deployed to contain the potentially explosive situation at the mine.
Mine management declined to answer questions from The Zimbabwean********. But a source within management, who declined to be named, said the company was in discussions with the union to find a mutually acceptable solution. He appealed to the strikers to return to work.The workers spokesman however said the employees would not go back to work until all their outstanding salaries from January were paid “in full.”
Post published in: News