January 2012 Volume 39, Crime and Courts
RBZ ordered to pay workers’ arrears
HARARE - Zimbabwe's central bank has been ordered by an arbitrator to pay more than $4,5 million owed to 237 non-managerial workers.
The money is backdated from March 2009 up to August 2010.
Labour lawyer Rogers Matsikidze of Matsikidze and Mucheche who represented the workers, said his clients were now waiting for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) central bank to pay up.
“The workers have suffered for too long and now deserve their reward although we would have loved to get the awards with interest,” Matsikidze told the Daily News at the weekend.
“We therefore expect no hitches except that the employer should honour its obligations and mitigate the suffering of the workers as a matter of urgency,” Matsikidze said.
He said failure by the bank to pay on time would result in the workers attaching the bank’s property.
Arbitrator Ms E Maganyani said the money owing was for salary arrears backdating to 2009.
The bank did not dispute the debt, which it said had accumulated because of lack of resources to pay.
“The Tribunal is forced to make an estimate using information provided not to just pluck a figure from nowhere and we have not received information to the contrary.
“Also it has reasonably inferred that the Respondent was not disputing the figures claimed by Claimants when it stated in its written submissions that there was no need to quantify figures known to Claimants,” Maganyani said.
She said with regards to the issue of interest, the Arbitrator noted the Claimants did not specify when it should start to apply hence it was dismissed.
Despite an order to the effect that the bank should abide by the order within three months from January 3, 2012 when the ruling was made, Maganyani noted that this might fail to happen because of the RBZ’s financial situation.
“…that the award ordering for the debt to be paid within a specified period would not be enforceable and also that it simply does not have such that it can only honour the debt when funds for that purpose are made available,” Maganyani said.
