Construction Workers Threaten To Down Tools
The Zimbabwe Construction and Allied Trades Workers Union (ZCATWU) has indicated that its members will embark on strike action this week if the Construction Industry Federation of Zimbabwe (CIFOZ) continues to renege on paying workers what was agreed on during the recent wage negotiations.
Employers in the construction industry have reportedly reneged on paying the NEC-agreed wage of US$200, currently ZWL$41 127 per month.
In a memorandum to all workers and employees in the construction industry dated 18 July 2022, ZCATWU said it has given CIFOZ 72 hours to fulfil its part of the bargain and failure to do that workers will down tools. Reads the memo:
We would like to inform you that the Zimbabwe Construction and Allied Trades Workers Union (ZCATWU) we have concluded our negotiations with the employers’ parties, i.e., CIFOZ and ZBCA for wages and salaries on the 12 of July 2022.
In terms of the National Employment Council (NEC) constitution, it states that after parties of the council have reached an agreement must sign the circular which would have been prepared and circulated by the NEC secretariat.
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In line with this constitutional obligation, the NEC secretariat has prepared the wages circular and sent it to all the parties involved namely ZCATWU, CIFOZ and ZBCA.
Two parties confirmed the correctness of the circular and these parties are ZCATWU and ZBCA by signing the circular.
It has come to our attention that CIFOZ is deliberately delaying signing the circular.
As it stands at this moment there hasn’t been any official communication as to why CIFOZ has taken this deliberate course of action.
We are therefore bringing to your attention that if the employers’ organizations, that is, CIFOZ and ZBCA maintain this unconstitutional position of not honouring the position which was reached by the highest body of the NEC, as a workers’ organization, we will be left with no option but to call for a NATIONAL WORK STOPPAGE. This position has been agreed upon by the trade union leadership.
With the above assertion, we are calling upon all workers in the Construction Industry of Zimbabwe to unite to ensure that our voice will be heard by these capitalist employers.
As you are aware that we started the negotiation process in March 2022 and up to now they are still refusing to respect the workers by paying them a decent living wage.
It should be known that for any nation to have a functional infrastructure and for development to come to life it is because of construction workers.
Therefore these employers must give us the due respect we deserve by honouring the agreement we had reached as parties to the NEC.
Please note that if there is no positive action done by the employers within 72 hours we are going to down tools. For any further information do not hesitate to contact us.
