Work on the gold producing mine came to a standstill last week as workers refused to show up for work and accused management of neglecting them by giving them low salaries. The workers gathered at the mine gate and refused to go to work despite pleas from the mine’s top management.
A spokesman for the workers who refused to be named for fear of victimisation told The Zimbabwean that some workers were taking home as little as $100 a month.
“We have been doing our best to negotiate with management over our salaries but it appears they just want to enrich themselves at the expense of the entire work force,” said the spokesman. “We are working long hours without being paid with some workers working for more than 12 hours a day. If we complain, we are threatened with dismissal,” he added.
It emerged that the gold mine has since scaled down production following the coming in of new players under the government’s contested indigenisation policy.
Sources at the mine said when new investors from the mine came in they started operating it like a backyard business.
“We are not going back to work until our demands are met. We want a 100 percent salary increment because what we have been getting is very low,” said one of the workers.
Management at the mine, which was formerly owned by Anglo-American Company, refused to talk to the press claiming that they were in meetings to end the industrial action.
Post published in: News