Gweru Council workers down tools over unpaid salaries

GWERU City Council workers yesterday staged a sit in protest over outstanding salaries after the cash-strapped has failed to pay them for three months.

But Secretary of the Gweru Chapter of the Zimbabwe Council Workers Union, Kudakwashe Munengiwa downplayed the matter saying "some council workers were executing their duties on humanitarian grounds since they were hungry."

"We can't say it was an industrial action as such but we had a colleague who fainted because of hunger. As you know we've gone for more than three months without getting paid and naturally in such a scenario hunger creeps in.

"So after one of the workers fainted some didn't attend to their duties because they felt they could meet the same fate," he said.

But Munengiwa could not rule out a fully fledged industrial action if the situation continues unabated.

Efforts to get a comment from City Mayor Councillor Hamutendi Kombayi or town clerk Daniel Matawu were fruitless as their mobile phones were not being answered.