Barberfield Chakwamura and five others from Brytheville Investments were retrenched six years ago but went on to win their case for retrenchment packages in January this year.
According to the court order passed by Labour Court judge, Maxwell Takuva, they were supposed to get between Z$45 billion and Z$65 billion each. The employees had worked for an average period of 10 years each.
Since the local currency was scrapped in 2009 to pave way for a foreign currency regime, an agreement was struck for the workers to get their dues in US dollars.
However, last week the company, through its lawyers Jumo & Partners, came up with an offer of between $200 and $300 for each of the affected workers claiming it had used an exchange rate obtained from a local bank. The company said it could not pay more than that.
“We do not know what to do now. We are stuck. The general consensus among us is that we cannot accept the proposed figures of $200 as a package for 10 years. It is not even half of what civil servants, the least paid, are getting in a month,” said one of the affected workers.
Chakwamura said the workers would not be cowed into accepting such a deal.
Midlands Regional Officer of the Zimbabwe Catering and Hotel Workers Union, Gift Kapeko, said the resolution by the catering company was unacceptable and his organisation would fight it.
Post published in: Business