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(HERALD) Zimdollar-era retirees must be compensated — experts

Zimdollar-era retirees must be compensated — experts
Thursday, 28 July 2011 02:00
From Peter Matambanadzo in NYANGA

WORKERS dismissed or retired before the introduction of multiple currencies in February 2009 should not go empty-handed and uncompensated, legal experts have said.
Those with pending disputes should app-roach the courts for redress, the judges said.

Judges attending the on-going workshop on international labour standards organised by the International Labour Organisation and the Ministry of Labour and Social Services said most workers had abandoned their claims as employers wanted to compensate them in Zimbabwean dollars. Presenting a paper on Zimbabwe's experience on the judicial use of international law, Labour Court president Mr Custom Kachambwa said Zimbabwe should use landmark judgments such as the Flexmail quantification of damages, which ruled that the worker must be compensated in multiple currencies, which are now the legal tender.

"The Zimbabwe dollar is still legal tender but no one wants to accept it. We have a problem of workers that were dismissed before February 2009 whose cases are still pending since most of them had given up but we are saying to the workers they should go back to the courts and present their cases," Mr Kachambwa said.

He said most employers wanted to compensate their ex-workers in Zimbabwe dollars but this was not acceptable.

"It is not fair for a worker after serving the company for many years to go uncompensated. Workers must not go empty handed as they had gone for a long time without being compensated as most have abandoned their cases. This business of employers wanting to see the worker going empty handed is diabolic," he said.

Mr Kachambwa said most employers were reluctant to compensate their workers and some cases had taken more than four years to be finalised.

He noted that it was horrendous that some workers had died before getting their packages.

"Employers should be the ones on the forefront to negotiate payment with their employees but it seems that they are not co-operating. They simply come and say we will pay in Zimbabwe dollars," he said.

Another Labour Court judge Mrs Justice Euna Makamure said people must not be worried about the technicality of the exchange rates to be used when working out the quantum of damages since the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had a framework which it used in the exchange rates.

"When the Zimbabwean dollar was still in circulation, the RBZ authorized companies to reward their workers in foreign currency. There were many companies that applied to the RBZ to pay their workers in US dollars or in Rand and they were granted the permission," she said.

High Court judge Justice Andrew Mute-ma called for an enactment of a specific legislation, which deals with currency disparities.

"The country must employ practical rather than theoretical strategies which will make us progressive," he said.

Several workers have lost terminal benefits and back pay following the introduction of multiple currencies. Most Zimbabweans also lost their savings were eroded just before dollarisation.

Since then, Government is yet to come up with a legislative framework to compensate Zimbabweans who lost their money.

Labels: ZDERA, ZIMBABWE DOLLAR

posted by MrK @ 3:29 PM