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Bulawayo City Council employees meet over outstanding salaries

by Staff reporter
23 Apr 2012 at 04:25hrs | Views
Bulawayo City Council workers are meeting today to decide the way forward regarding the non-payment of outstanding salaries.

In an interview yesterday, Zimbabwe Urban Councils Workers' Union (ZUCWU) Bulawayo branch secretary Mr Nkosiyabo Masuku said the workers are meeting today at the Revenue Hall to decide on what action to take to force their employer to pay outstanding salaries.

There are reports that some workers are pushing for a strike to force council to pay the salaries but Mr Masuku ruled out a strike.

He however said the union will continue to engage the council so that it pays the outstanding salaries. The council workers are owed two months salaries.

On Friday, hundreds of Bulawayo City Council employees gathered at the Stanley Square in Makokoba led by the ZUCWU secretary-general, Mr Moses Tsimukeni Mahlangu and resolved to make the final demand for their salaries today.

The workers had met on Sunday last week and gave the local authority up to Friday last week to clear the outstanding salaries.

In an interview after Friday meeting, Mr Mahlangu said the workers told the union that they could no longer afford to continue reporting for work.

"We met this evening with about a 1000  council workers. The meeting  resolved that workers should meet again on Monday to decide the way forward," he said.

ZUCWU recently said 12 out of 23 urban councils were in salary arrears, with town of Redcliff reportedly having gone for more than two years without paying its workers.  

Mr Mahlangu said the situation for some workers was so bad as some of them were facing eviction after failing to pay rentals.

Source - chronicle