5380 work related injuries and 54 deaths recorded at the work place during 2015

Minister of Public Service,Labour and Social Services Priscilla Mupfumira has said Zimbabwe recorded 5380 work related injuries and 54 deaths at the work place during 2015.

She said while this was a marked decrease to the 2014 levels of 5 491 injuries and 98 deaths, the ratio per registered work place remains unacceptably high.

"My Ministry is working on various legislative measures to empower NSSA to oversee the safety of our workplace. Zimbabwe should not, in this century, be recording such high levels of work place deaths," she said.

"The country had 1 387 registered elevators as at 31 December, 2015. With 707 of these currently out of work. NSSA carried out inspections of the elevators and found that only 38% of the country's elevators comply with safety standards. Three major elevator accidents were reported last year and two lives were lost in these accidents. The condition of the country's elevators has deteriorated over the years. This is linked to the difficult economic environment and poor rental yields currently prevailing in the property sector."

Mupfumira said NSSA currently employs 837 staff of whom 342 or 41% are women and the gender balance however, is skewed against women at the senior level and we expect the new board to work towards correcting that.

"In the past, NSSA used to pay a basic salary plus a number of benefits ranging from four at the lower level to 16 at the senior level. The remuneration structure did not comply with the Government directive that benefits and allowances should be kept at 40% of basic salary," said the minister. "The board is currently finalising a new remuneration framework to be used on a total cost to company. The new remuneration framework will be implemented in the second quarter of 2016. The aim of the remuneration restructure is to align the authority's performance and the worker's earnings with the exceptional performance being rewarded through performance related bonuses."

She said the economy is undergoing through a difficult period and more so to the pensioners.

"NSSA employees cannot continue to earn high salaries and benefits at the expense of the pensioners. We hope the board's new remuneration framework will see significant savings in the employment costs to be borne by the pensioners," Mupfumira said.

"I am aware the House is keen to know the packages paid out to the former senior managers who were relieved of their duties at NSSA. I would like to start by commending the board for the manner in which the exercise was conducted and my Ministry is happy with the outcome."

She said the posts which were affected by the retrenchments or relief of duties and the salaries as follows: The General Manager earned a basic salary of US$13 768 and benefits of US$19 779, giving a grand total of US$33 547.

"The General Manager had also a company car and 500 litres fuel allowance among a litany of other allowances. The Finance Director earned a salary of US$7 705 and allowances of US$8 456 with a litany of benefits. The Corporate Services Director was on US$7 775 basic salary and US$9900 in benefits and other allowances. The Investments Director earned US$7 775 basic salary and US$6 138 allowances and other allowances. The ICT Director earned US$6 490 basic salary and US$6 260 allowances," she said.

"In settling the retrenchment packages, the board accepted the basic salaries but kept the allowances at 40% of basic salary. The board also settled the retrenchment packages at one month for each year worked. This saw the managers getting the following: General Manager's retrenchment salary was capped at US$22 000. The total package payable to the retrenchees was $1 475 302. However, the net payment from the Authority was reduced as loans were all recovered and expecting loans were more than the packages."

Mupfumira said apart from the general manager, all the managers opted not to buy their allocated vehicles and this will be sold by the Authority.