News / National
ARDA drags non existing workers to court
11 Aug 2015 at 08:07hrs | Views
Zimbabwe's troubled parastatal, Agricultural Rural Development Authority's bid to get close to fifty employees' fired on allegations of staging an unlawful demonstration has hit a snag after the court ruled that the employees did not exist.
The ghost employees' are alleged to have staged a demonstration in a bid to pressure ARDA to offset salary arrears owed to them for over a year. The employees are said to have also been demanding safety clothing as required by law.
Aggrieved by the demonstration the employer approached the labor court and tasked it to determine whether the demonstration alleged to have been staged by the employees' was legal.
ARDA on the eighteenth of June this year filed two documents as party of its submissions outlining the fact that the demonstration staged by the employees' was unwarranted.
However the employees' through their legal practitioner, Takudzwa Mafongoya, of Matsikidze and Mucheche Legal Practitioners, pointed out that the notice of application filed by ARDA as J. Jebizani and 39 others was defective since the number thirty nine failed to clarify the exact respondents in context.
The second argument posted by Mafongoya was that previous documents submitted by the Minister of Labour when a cause show order was being sought showed that Jebizani was the representative of the employees' in his capacity as Workers' Committee Chairperson.
In considering the case presiding judge ,Honorable Chivizhe noted, 'After considering submissions by both parties and upon proper examination of the law and more particularly the case authorities referred to by respondent, the court handed down an order striking the application off the roll."
In reaching this conclusion the court found that the issue of citation of parties as to who is before the court is a question of law.
The citation of the respondent was clearly defective as there is no legal persona referred to as 'and 39 others'. The irregularity was not such as could be amended by way of notice to amend pleadings as submitted by ARDA. It was the court's view that a nullity cannot be amended"
In passing verdict recorded under LC/H/449/2015 the judge ordered, 'On the basis that it was the court's view that there being no respondents before the court at the time the application was instituted. The matter ought to be struck off the roll with costs."
ARDA is a parastatal tasked to improve agriculture and rural development in Zimbabwe, at its peak it operated over thirty six estates. It is one of the entities that have been affects by poor management policies.
The authority is currently negotiating with the retrenchment board on the modalities of laying off part of its Headquarters Staff.
The ghost employees' are alleged to have staged a demonstration in a bid to pressure ARDA to offset salary arrears owed to them for over a year. The employees are said to have also been demanding safety clothing as required by law.
Aggrieved by the demonstration the employer approached the labor court and tasked it to determine whether the demonstration alleged to have been staged by the employees' was legal.
ARDA on the eighteenth of June this year filed two documents as party of its submissions outlining the fact that the demonstration staged by the employees' was unwarranted.
However the employees' through their legal practitioner, Takudzwa Mafongoya, of Matsikidze and Mucheche Legal Practitioners, pointed out that the notice of application filed by ARDA as J. Jebizani and 39 others was defective since the number thirty nine failed to clarify the exact respondents in context.
The second argument posted by Mafongoya was that previous documents submitted by the Minister of Labour when a cause show order was being sought showed that Jebizani was the representative of the employees' in his capacity as Workers' Committee Chairperson.
In considering the case presiding judge ,Honorable Chivizhe noted, 'After considering submissions by both parties and upon proper examination of the law and more particularly the case authorities referred to by respondent, the court handed down an order striking the application off the roll."
In reaching this conclusion the court found that the issue of citation of parties as to who is before the court is a question of law.
The citation of the respondent was clearly defective as there is no legal persona referred to as 'and 39 others'. The irregularity was not such as could be amended by way of notice to amend pleadings as submitted by ARDA. It was the court's view that a nullity cannot be amended"
In passing verdict recorded under LC/H/449/2015 the judge ordered, 'On the basis that it was the court's view that there being no respondents before the court at the time the application was instituted. The matter ought to be struck off the roll with costs."
ARDA is a parastatal tasked to improve agriculture and rural development in Zimbabwe, at its peak it operated over thirty six estates. It is one of the entities that have been affects by poor management policies.
The authority is currently negotiating with the retrenchment board on the modalities of laying off part of its Headquarters Staff.
Source - online
