Maravi

(HERALD) Strike paralyses Harare

Strike paralyses Harare
Saturday, 08 October 2011 00:00
Felex Share Herald Reporter

HARARE City Council workers went on strike yesterday demanding improved salaries and better working conditions, paralysing service delivery in nearly all critical departments. The workers are planning a massive demonstration at Town House on Monday morning.

They are also demanding an end to "secretive" payrolls and incentives to senior managers they claim were bleeding council resources at the expense of their welfare and service delivery. The strike comes after the workers got an arbitral award of a 16 percent salary increment effective January this year.

However, council unilaterally decided to give each worker a top-up of US$20.
The least-paid council worker in grade 16 now earns US$150 after the US$20 adjustment.

This grade includes cleaners and all general staff.

Most council operations came to a standstill with the health department, refuse collection and cleaning services being the most affected.

Toilets and streets in the Central Business District were not cleaned yesterday as the workers heeded calls by their unions to strike.

The situation was worse in Mbare and health experts fear a disease outbreak if no solution is hammered.

Council employees could be seen sitting under trees while others decided to go home.
Residents who wanted to pay bills were in most cases turned away as there was no one to attend to them.

Council spokesperson Mr Leslie Gwindi yesterday said they were negotiating with the workers.

"We are negotiating and I can tell you that the whole of this morning (yesterday) we were negotiating. We hope to come up with a solution very soon," he said.

However, Harare Municipal Workers Union chairperson Mr Cosmas Bungu said efforts to engage management failed to yield positive results.

He said workers would only return to work after a "reasonable" salary increment.
"They have failed to honour the arbitral award and the workers have resolved that enough is enough. They should observe the dictates of social justice. The executive payroll should be made public because we believe 60 percent of the total budget is for them.

"When we had our manpower audit we participated but surprisingly we were never consulted on the consolidating process and we believe there are thousands of ghost workers and someone is benefiting from that," he said.

Mr Bungu added: "There is no politicking here. What we are doing is just the wishes of the people as evidenced in our balloting. The people have spoken."
Interviewed workers accused the management of neglecting them.

"Some of us are lodgers and we have to pay rentals but how does the management expect us to survive. We have children who need school fees and this has to come from the US$150 I am getting.

"They should be sensitive to our plight because we also deserve better treatment," said one worker.

Another worker at Wilkins Hospital said nurses had reported for duty but were not attending to patients.

"People are here, but nothing is being done in terms of working. We were just seated since morning, joining our fellows in the job action. We are waiting for Monday when we will all invade Town House to confront the management," the worker said.

The situation was the same at the Beatrice Road Infectious Diseases Hospitals where workers said they had joined the strike.

"We believe in collective job action and that's why we have heeded calls by the union leaders to down tools," he said.

Others complained council was paying more money to ghost workers.

"They don't want to release the report on the ghost workers and it means people on the payroll are much more than the touted 10 000," added another employee.

Apart from failing to increase workers' salaries, council has also come under fire from residents for poor service delivery despite the high revenue it collects.
The council gets revenue from beerhalls, clinics, commercial and residential properties.

Most residents in high-density areas rely on council clinics and maternity facilities.

Labels: HARARE, HARARE CITY COUNCIL, MDC CORRUPTION, STRIKE

posted by MrK @ 2:38 PM