NRZ losing $250 000 due to strike

National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) chairman Larry Mavima has claimed that the ongoing strike is costing  $250,000 a day.

He sais to date about  $14 million overall has been lost as its workers continue their strike over unpaid wages.

Workers, who downed tools on March 29 after going unpaid for 15 months, have refused to end their strike after the government paid them $3 million, about four percent of the $68 million they are owed in unpaid wages.

"A day we are making more than $250,000 losses due to the strike. We have asked the workers to bear with us because as long as we are not moving trains, we do not make money. The government is failing to meet its costs and it shows how difficult things are," Mavima is quoted saying.

Mavima said government has given the NRZ an opportunity to move grain, but workers remain on strike.

He said that it was hard to engage with workers as their unions were dysfunctional.

"They have disowned their unions and this has made the situation difficult to deal with," he said.

The strike by the 4,000 NRZ workers has halted operations at the company, causing delays in the transportation of imported wheat and maizefor drought relief. The parastatalis saddled with a $144 million debt.

Last year, the volume of goods moved by NRZ tumbled to 2,8 million tonnes from 3,5 million in 2014.