High court stops Tongaat strike

An attempt by Zimbabwe Sugar Milling Workers Union (ZISMIWU) members to embark on a fresh job action last week hit a brick wall after Tongaat Hullet won an interdict at the High Court against the industrial action.

Masvingo Mirror reported that the workers hastily returned to work a few hours after they downed tools.

ZISMIWU president Freedom Madungwe confirmed the latest development and said his union wanted to continue with the job action which they aborted three weeks ago after Tongaat Hullet failed to honour some of what they promised. He said Friday's action was stopped by the High Court after Tongaat Hullet filed for an urgent chamber interdict and his union received an order from Justice Makoni to stop the strike.

"Our latest effort to embark on a job action was thwarted on Friday after our employers filed an urgent chamber application to declare the action illegal. Some few hours we received a directive from Justice Makoni to stop the action until 30 January when a determination will be made. They are saying the action is unlawful but we say it's lawful because we are continuing from where we left. Last time we agreed that $10 should be the minimum offer and parties should come to the negotiating table and that was what caused us to call off the December strike but now they are failing to fulfil those promises hence we decided to continue with the job action" said Madungwe.

Tongaat Corporate Affairs and Communications Manager Adelaide Chikunguru however requested questions on her email but no response had been obtained at the time of going to Press.

Sources said a memo had circulated in the morning warning employees of consequences if they embark on what they termed an illegal strike.

Hundreds heeded the call in Hippo Valley and were seen mingling around at the main offices grounds before they swarmed back to work at around 11am as the High Court word reached them. news