TM line manager clash with branch manager over harassment and victimisation

A TM Supermarket line manager who was one of the line managers who were embroiled in labour dispute with the company over none payment of 2009 bonuses has accused the Bulawayo branch manager of harassing and victimising him.

He has since reported the matter to the Ministry of labour citing unfair labour practice.

The line manager stationed at Lobengula Street in Bulawayo, Nicholas Khumbulani Tshili filed his complaint with the Ministry of labour on April 2 against the branch manager Clayton Mawere stating that he is being victimized by the branch manager through minor issues.

A notification of hearing between him and the branch manager written to Mawere states that the two parties will meet at the labour officer's office at Mhlahlandlela government offices to diliberate on the dispute.

Tshili said he has suffered several threats from the manager who at some point told him to buy a calculator which he was ordered to send to Harare and when it delayed it was returned back to Bulawayo.

He said the manager is vowing to deal with him that is why he decided to take the matter to the ministry of labour.

The dispute come at a time when the labour court sometime in 2010 ruled that the management should not harass or victimize the line managers who were unfairly suspended whom the court had ruled in their favour that they must be returned to work.

The company had suspended Itayi Nkomo and four other line managers in 2010 and they filed an appeal at the court against management. The labour Court Judge President Mercy Moya Matshanga ordered the company to reinstate the managers pending disciplinary hearing and ordered that the company management should not harass them and never do unfair labour practice on them.

Meanwhile TM Supermarket's labour court appeal against a Bulawayo High Court judgment that endorsed the arbitration award which granted the three line managers to be paid their outstanding money is still pending at the labour court.

Itayi Nkomo, Thembinkosi Nyathi and Nicholas Khumbula Tshili are fighting their employer over unpaid bonuses of $2 390 each awarded them on October 23 last year by an arbitrator.

The managers on January 23, 2013 got an order from the Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese ordering TM to pay them $2 390 each as backpay. His was after an independent arbitrator had awarded them to be paid the amount.

TM reportedly refused to pay the managers the money allegedly as punishment for refusing to work on Unity Day in 2009.

The company at some point appealed at the Labour court before Labour Court president Justice Sello Nare suspending a ruling by an arbitrator compelling TM Supermarkets to pay three managers their salaries and bonuses.

The managers later filed an application seeking the order that compels Nare to withdraw from dealing with the matter on grounds that he was an interested party since he was supplying the Supermarket with vegetables. Their appeal was granted and Justice Nare's ruling was set aside there by paving way for the managers to get paid as per the initial order granted by Makonese.
However following the dismissal of Nare's ruling the company has since appealed at the labour court for a leave to appeal to the Supreme Court where the company wants to seek an order nullifying a ruling which grated the managers to be paid.

Their appeal for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is yet to be heard by Moya Machanga.

The wrangle between the managers and their employers started in 2009 after they refused to work on December 22 because TM had refused to pay their bonus, but reportedly chose to buy 23 luxury vehicles instead.