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(HERALD) Zupco in bid to lay off 400 employees

Zupco in bid to lay off 400 employees
Herald Reporter

THE Zimbabwe United Passenger Company is in the process of retrenching nearly 400 employees citing a depleted fleet. However, the parastatal has to raise an estimated US$2 million in exit packages for the affected workers.

Out of a fleet of 325 buses only 114 are operational. The transport utility has 1 077 employees. Zupco chief executive officer Mr Morris Sakabuya yesterday confirmed the development.

“We want to retrench 362 workers. Their exit packages will be worked out in tranches. This is the only avenue left for Zupco to survive.

“It is a painful exercise but it has to be done. It is like giving birth,” Mr Sakabuya said.

He said Zupco required between US$1,5 million and US$2 million to fund the retrenchment exercise.

“We have agreed with workers that retrenchment is a must and we are finalising the conditions.

“Fleet depletion is the major problem. During the Zimbabwe dollar regime it was difficult to service buses and they are now very old. Out of 325, only 114 are on the road and we have a bloated workforce of 1 077.

“The bus-worker ratio is one to five. We have a huge wage bill and 34 percent of the revenue generated by the company is absorbed by salaries,” Mr Sakabuya added.

The Transport Workers’ Union yesterday said it was aware that Zupco wanted to retrench workers.

The union’s deputy general secretary Mr Tonderai Kanengoni said problems at the parastatal started last year when Zupco reduced working hours to cut costs. According to Mr Kanengoni, Zupco was supposed to have applied to the National Employment Council for the Transport Operating Industry for approval to reduce workers’ working hours, but did not.

“Zupco then proceeded to put workers on an illegal three-month unpaid leave again without following due process.

“We are now told that it intends to retrench a number of employees but management does not want to reveal the figures to us,” Mr Kanengoni said.

It is understood that workers and management are arguing over the calculation of the retrenchment packages. As of February last year, the lowest paid employee was earning about US$100 a month.

This was increased to US$180 in March 2009. Mr Kanengoni said management wants to use the US$100 salary to calculate packages, a proposal workers oppose.

Zupco has written to the National Employment Council for the Transport Operating Industry pleading for exemption from paying arbitrator awarded rates and backpay.

The letter, dated March 2, 2010 said Zupco could not afford to pay the award. “Our application for a waiver is premised on the fact that we are unable to pay the rates as determined.

“Our company is facing severe financial difficulties as a result of which we have sent some employees on unpaid leave, among other measures we are implementing to keep the company afloat.”

The employment council, however, refused to hear Zupco’s case arguing that the parastatal owed it US$39 200 in unpaid levies.

However, the parastatal has been deducting the money from workers’ salaries and saying it is going to the employment council. Meanwhile, a major restructuring exercise is underway at Zupco that will lead to the creation of strategic business units.

Mr Sakabuya yesterday said: “We are looking at major depots like Rusape-Mutare, Kariba-Chinhoyi-Karoi, Masvingo-Chiredzi, and Gweru-Gokwe-Kwekwe.

“We want to turn these into business units and they will generate their own salaries among other things.

“Each unit will have its own budget,” Mr Sakabuya said.

He said qualified managers would run the SBUs unlike in the past when a mechanic was in charge of a whole depot.

Labels: PARASTATALS, ZUPCO

posted by MrK @ 4:17 PM