Business / Companies
Firms fire 1000 workers on Thursday
24 Jul 2015 at 06:05hrs | Views
AT least 1 000 workers from different companies were fired on Thursday countrywide.
Zimasco reportedly sacked 648 workers.
According to reports, an estimated 3 000 workers have been laid off in one week.
The mass job cuts are part of a scramble by companies to fire workers without benefits as they capitalise on last Friday's Supreme Court ruling.
The Supreme Court, in a case involving Zuva Petroleum and two former managers, ruled that companies can give three months' notice to terminate workers' contracts even without benefits.
According to NewsDay, the ruling opened floodgates as several companies including Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, publishers of The Daily News, and Sakunda Logistics sent workers home.
Zimasco workers said the chrome mining and smelting company yesterday gave them an option to take the company's preferred compulsory retrenchment plan or risk getting nothing.
Although a company official, Clara Sadomba, professed ignorance over the development, the affected employees maintained that they had been sacked.
"We were given an option to take their preferred retrenchment package, that of two weeks' pay multiplied by the number of years that one has served," one of the employees who requested anonymity said.
"Around the end of 2013, the employer began to cite unviability of business and offered voluntary retrenchment where people were going to be given two weeks' salary multiplied by the number of years served and less than 100 people took that."
In a statement after yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Prisca Mupfumira said the government had resolved to urgently amend the Labour Act to avoid further job losses.
"Government has resolved to amend the relevant provisions of the Labour Act in the shortest possible time in order to restore equilibrium in the market. Meanwhile, government appeals to employers to exercise maximum restraint in terminating contracts of employment on notice, pursuant to the Supreme Court ruling," she said.
President Robert Mugabe has been urged by labour bodies and human rights organisations to act to stop the job losses.
Zimasco reportedly sacked 648 workers.
According to reports, an estimated 3 000 workers have been laid off in one week.
The mass job cuts are part of a scramble by companies to fire workers without benefits as they capitalise on last Friday's Supreme Court ruling.
The Supreme Court, in a case involving Zuva Petroleum and two former managers, ruled that companies can give three months' notice to terminate workers' contracts even without benefits.
According to NewsDay, the ruling opened floodgates as several companies including Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, publishers of The Daily News, and Sakunda Logistics sent workers home.
Zimasco workers said the chrome mining and smelting company yesterday gave them an option to take the company's preferred compulsory retrenchment plan or risk getting nothing.
Although a company official, Clara Sadomba, professed ignorance over the development, the affected employees maintained that they had been sacked.
"We were given an option to take their preferred retrenchment package, that of two weeks' pay multiplied by the number of years that one has served," one of the employees who requested anonymity said.
"Around the end of 2013, the employer began to cite unviability of business and offered voluntary retrenchment where people were going to be given two weeks' salary multiplied by the number of years served and less than 100 people took that."
In a statement after yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Prisca Mupfumira said the government had resolved to urgently amend the Labour Act to avoid further job losses.
"Government has resolved to amend the relevant provisions of the Labour Act in the shortest possible time in order to restore equilibrium in the market. Meanwhile, government appeals to employers to exercise maximum restraint in terminating contracts of employment on notice, pursuant to the Supreme Court ruling," she said.
President Robert Mugabe has been urged by labour bodies and human rights organisations to act to stop the job losses.
Source - NewsDay
