Workers are an integral part of any development, not a liability

Recent reports of workers being dismissed by their employers, mostly without due process being followed, is another clear sign of a heartless and cruel corporate culture that shamelessly puts money above human lives.

Last week's heart rending stories of the insensitive treatment of Grain Marketing Board (GMB) workers by their employer, is the latest in a long list of the needless suffering inflicted on people who have sacrificed so much for their companies, and contributed immensely to Zimbabwe's development, but suddenly see themselves discarded and neglected.

After all that sacrifice, devotion, loyalty, and enviable patriotism, one would have thought that workers would be awarded the respect and gratitude they deserve.

On the contrary, what we have been witnessing are workers who have been striped bear of their dignity and worth.

All contributors to Zimbabwe's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - be it agriculture, tourism, mining, manufacturing, service provision, among a host of others - are driven by workers.

In 2014, the country's GDP was worth US$13.66 Billion. The GDP value of Zimbabwe represents 0.02 percent of the world economy.

GDP in Zimbabwe averaged US$5.76 Billion from 1960 until 2014, reaching an all time high of US$13.66 Billion in 2014 from a record low of US$1.05 Billion in 1960.

As such, we can never boast about record-breaking economic growth figures without mentioning the workers behind that growth.

However, what we see on the ground is pathetic, to say the least.

Instead of rewarding such noble and illustrious sons and daughters of this nation - who have done so much for us - we cast them into the sea to be eaten by sharks.

Otherwise, how can we explain not paying such devoted and loyal workers for months on end? GMB workers, for instance, have gone for nearly two years without being paid properly.

Similarly, when these companies decide that they no longer need these workers, they chase them off as if they were a pack wolves - abandoning them to be ravaged by poverty, hopelessness and desperation.

These companies readily forget that these are real live human beings. Maybe they have been so used to seeing machines in their companies, such that they can no longer distinguish machine from human.

Need they be reminded that humans have feelings that need to be respected. Humans survive on food and need to buy it. Humans need dwellings, which they have to pay for. Humans have children to pay school fees for.

However, that basic common sense truth is somehow lost on the employers. Or is it selective amnesia?

How else can one explain dismissing workers without just cause? Is that how a society with a soul treats those that have contributed so much to its development?

After toiling for years on end - waking up very early in the morning and getting back home late and tired nearly every day - without being paid regularly and adequately - only to be told one day that they are no longer needed.

To add insult to injury, after being laid off, they are also told that they will not be receiving any terminal benefits.

Workers are already struggling to survive on the meagre salaries they are meant to receive, how then are they expected to survive when they are not even given that little?

Additionally, the employers have the embarrassing audacity to offer terminal benefits of an equivalent of two weeks salary for every year served.

For instance, if a worker earned US$250 per month, and worked for a company for five years, they would get a measly US$625 in terminal benefits.

What is one expected to do with US$625, probably for the rest of their life? That amount is not even enough as one month's salary.

That is the gravest insult I have ever come across in my life. Surely, having served in a company for five years, one would expected to receive humane treatment from their employers.

Needless to say, such heartlessness goes further as employers find it difficult to pay that obscene amount, with thousands of workers going away without even a cent?

Furthermore, they are ordered to vacate company residence or else pay commercial rates.

Where would they be expected to find money for rent, when they have not been receiving a regular salary for years, and are denied their terminal benefits?

Such insensitivity is beyond comprehension.

How do these employers sleep at night with a clear conscience, knowing that the very people who made the wealth that enables them to sleep in upmarket houses, are most probably lying somewhere on the streets without a roof over their heads?

Hordes of school children will have to drop out of school next year, as their parents can no longer afford to pay their fees due to lack of terminal benefits - creating a whole new generation of an uneducated populace.

Considering that Zimbabwe had done well in educating its people, resulting in its citizens being ranked amongst some of the best minds on the continent, if not globally, it is very sad that all this is now being undone, as the nation fails to send its children to school.

As the adage goes, render to Caesar that which is Caesar's. Employers are urged to pay their workers what is due. It is not a favour, but it is the employee's right and the employer's obligation.

The nation does not expect such insensitivity in a cultured society.

Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a community activist, communications consultant, journalist and writer. He writes in his personal capacity. He welcomes any feedback. Please call/WhatsApp +263782283975 or email: tendaiandtinta.mbofana@gmail.com