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Lovemore Meya Herald Correspondent
One-hundred-and-sixteen former Chitungwiza municipal workers are challenging their dismissal by the council in August 2015 on three months’ notice, claiming that the arbitrary action was both unfair and unlawful.

The workers have since taken their case (A. Zvuke and 11 others) before labour officer Mr Faith Mupangami for conciliation. The hearing for the matter, under case number 1490/17, has been set down for September 20. In their letter to the department of labour administration in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Service, the workers said their dismissal did not follow the precepts of the law.

“We represent these employees, who were unlawfully dismissed from employment on August 26, 2015 and in September 2015 using the Zuva judgment,” said Chitungwiza Municipality Workers Union president, Mr Ephraim Katsina

“It is against this background that we would like your office to once again conciliate on this matter as we are very confident that those dismissals were unlawful, especially in light of the National Handling Services (NHS) judgment recently done at the Labour Court,” he said. Chitungwiza Municipality is being represented by Matsikidze and Mucheche Commercial and Labour Law Chambers.

The workers’ argument hinges on a recent landmark judgment made by the head of the Labour Court Justice Gladys Mhuri, who ruled that workers fired on three months’ notice without their consent after the 2015 Zuva Petroleum judgment were now entitled to reinstatement or payment of damages as their dismissal was unlawful.

Justice Mhuri also ruled that the Labour Amendment Act (Number 5 of 2015) applies in retrospect to cover all those who lost their jobs from July 17, 2015. The Constitutional Court is yet to rule on the constitutionality of the retrospective application of the amended law.