Ex-NRZ employees still to be paid in full

Published: 30 August 2017

FORMER National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) employees are yet to be fully paid their dues, two years after their retrenchment.

The 450-plus workers were laid off following the late Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku's landmark judgment, which allowed employers to terminate employees' contracts on three-month notices.

However, the NRZ terminations came as the parastatal was already struggling to pay workers, resulting in several demonstrations.

The Association of Railway Terminated Employees (Arte) — which was formed by frustrated workers as they saw no hope in receiving their terminal benefits anytime soon — said this week its members were yet to have their $6 million-plus benefits settled, despite continued engagement with NRZ management.

"It was unfortunate that . . . NRZ chose to pay paltry figures and inconsistently," Arte chairperson, Innocent Netanyahu told the Southern News.

"Every month, we have to battle for them to bank something for us and in some cases we go for over 60 days without receiving anything," Netanyahu added.

Former NRZ train guard turned political activist Linda Masarira, also a co-founder of Arte, expressed her displeasure at the company's failure to prioritise their welfare, considering that they were now jobless.

"The government being the major shareholder of this oppressive parastatal, if not the 100 percent owner, should have coerced its quasi institution to pay the workers within 45 days from date of termination.

"But it has chosen to fold its arms and workers have been subjected to serious poverty," fumed Masarira.

Meanwhile, the parastatal's $400 million deal with the Diaspora Infrastructure Development Group and Transnet has brought anxiety among the agitated former staffers.

Around the deal, there are talks about warehousing of NRZ's $300 million-plus debts, under which it is believed that liabilities will be removed from the rail network operator's balance sheet and put under a special purpose vehicle.

However, the ex-employees fear that once the debt is warehoused or handed over to government, their dues will be whitewashed.

However, Netanyahu remained confident that they will get their dues.

"The Labour Act is clear on stipulating that terminated employees must be compensated on loss of employment and that all terminal benefits are to be paid.

"Moreover, our meetings with NRZ have several Memoranda of Understanding that they would pay us, including the commitment and directive of the NRZ board itself.

"I don't see us being subjected to a Ziscosteel scenario. We worked for these monies in a functional company. To dismiss our payments would be gross injustice and violation of human rights, more so, considering that NRZ has taken two years to look for funds to pay us."
- dailynews

Tags: NRZ,