News / Local
Marvo workers down tools over unpaid wages
21 Sep 2013 at 06:30hrs | Views
Workers at Bulawayo-based firm Marvo stationers have gone on strike for the second time this year after going without pay for eight months.
This is the second time that the workers at the struggling company have resorted to industrial action over unpaid wages.
In June, Marvo employees downed tools and took their matter for arbitration to try and force Marvo to pay wages dating back to last year.
At the end of the arbitration process, Marvo was ordered to pay workers their backdated wages in three instalments, starting July 1st, and then in August and September.
But to date, the company is yet to make any payment leading to the strike action.
According to SW Radio Africa's Bulawayo-based correspondent Lionel Saungweme, some of the workers said they had been evicted from their homes as they could not afford to pay their rents.
Some also indicated that their children had stopped going to school owing to unpaid fees.
Saungweme said despite not receiving any salaries, the employees continued to go to work for fear of being dismissed and losing amounts of up to $6,000 which they are owed.
"With the unemployment rate pegged at more than 90% and investor confidence low in Zimbabwe, most employees fear that if they lose their jobs they won't find another job.
"Which is ironic in the sense that even when they have jobs most employees never know whether they will be paid or not," Saungweme added.
Marvo joins a long list of other companies that have reportedly failed to pay their workers in the past two years.
This month alone, workers at state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) revealed that they had gone without salaries for more than six months.
At the same time, workers at government-owned Agricultural Rural Development Agency's Balu Estate, just outside Bulawayo, also revealed that they had not been paid for seven months.
Recently, it was also reported that 80 workers at communication firm Liquid Telecom staged a sit-in, vowing to sleep at the premises until their wages were paid.
In January, about 50 workers at the Zimbabwe Engineering Company in Bulawayo accused their employer, Zanu-PF official Phillip Chiyangwa, of failing to pay them full salaries for the past three years.
The workers, who claimed they were each owed as much as $12,000, took their case to the National Employment Council for the Engineering Sector for arbitration.
"The economy is yet to show any signs of recovery and at this rate, we are likely to see more of these industrial actions as companies fail to pay their workers," Saungweme added.
This is the second time that the workers at the struggling company have resorted to industrial action over unpaid wages.
In June, Marvo employees downed tools and took their matter for arbitration to try and force Marvo to pay wages dating back to last year.
At the end of the arbitration process, Marvo was ordered to pay workers their backdated wages in three instalments, starting July 1st, and then in August and September.
But to date, the company is yet to make any payment leading to the strike action.
According to SW Radio Africa's Bulawayo-based correspondent Lionel Saungweme, some of the workers said they had been evicted from their homes as they could not afford to pay their rents.
Some also indicated that their children had stopped going to school owing to unpaid fees.
Saungweme said despite not receiving any salaries, the employees continued to go to work for fear of being dismissed and losing amounts of up to $6,000 which they are owed.
"Which is ironic in the sense that even when they have jobs most employees never know whether they will be paid or not," Saungweme added.
Marvo joins a long list of other companies that have reportedly failed to pay their workers in the past two years.
This month alone, workers at state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) revealed that they had gone without salaries for more than six months.
At the same time, workers at government-owned Agricultural Rural Development Agency's Balu Estate, just outside Bulawayo, also revealed that they had not been paid for seven months.
Recently, it was also reported that 80 workers at communication firm Liquid Telecom staged a sit-in, vowing to sleep at the premises until their wages were paid.
In January, about 50 workers at the Zimbabwe Engineering Company in Bulawayo accused their employer, Zanu-PF official Phillip Chiyangwa, of failing to pay them full salaries for the past three years.
The workers, who claimed they were each owed as much as $12,000, took their case to the National Employment Council for the Engineering Sector for arbitration.
"The economy is yet to show any signs of recovery and at this rate, we are likely to see more of these industrial actions as companies fail to pay their workers," Saungweme added.
Source - SW Radio Africa
