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Bianca Leboho Herald reporter
THE Grain Marketing Board and its former employees, who have been camped outside GMB premises since February 9, have reached an agreement following a High Court settlement which was signed by both parties.

The settlement follows an appeal made by the GMB for the eviction of former employees who were camped outside its premises for more than a month, in a bid to get salaries they were owed by the entity.

“The applicant shall pay the respondents their individual salary arrears amounting to $1 890 954, 28 in equal instalments of $350 each on or before the 16th of every month commencing on the 16th of March 2016,” reads the settlement.

The dismissed workers’ defence team leader, Mr Munyaradzi Gwisai, said if GMB kept its part of the agreement as per the court order, the workers would finally get reprieve.

“The agreement is that all former workers who were dismissed in August last year are paid what they are owed including those who were absent at the demonstration.

“However, the 500 workers who actively demonstrated by camping outside GMB for more than a month were formally listed on paper to ensure that their efforts do not go to waste,” said Mr Gwisai. As part of the settlement, the GMB former workers were required to vacate the premises upon the signing of the court order.

“The respondents and all those claiming occupation through them shall vacate the premises upon the signing of the High Court order giving effect to this deed,” reads the settle- ment.

All of the former GMB workers vacated the company’s premises on Friday upon receiving their bus fares from the GMB as was agreed in court.

Mr Gwisai said the settlement allowed them to proceed with the execution process in the case that the parastatal failed to follow through with the agree- ment.

He said the workers were also pursuing the case of their illegal dismissal from GMB which was still under review by the Ministry of Labour.

The workers sit-in was beginning to seem hopeless until the latest developments.