Zimbabwe Union of Mine Workers cries foul over low salaries

By Ronnie Chisamba

Zedi Banda, the general secretary of the Union of Mine Workers (ZUMW) has expressed dissatisfaction over recently announced low salary increments for mine employees.

Zimbabwe Union of Mine Workers strongly believes the proposed salary adjustments are a raw deal. According to the Chamber of Mines, the proposed salary increments will see the lowest mining employee getting ZW$93 074 and the highest paid pocketing ZW $215 872.

Responding to the announcement of the proposed salary adjustment ZUMW had this to say: “We as Zimbabwe Union of Mine Workers (ZUMW) are not happy because of the following reasons: workers’ representatives and their representative unions were supposed to be consulted before pronouncements were made. Reviewed salaries should have been pegged in Usd rather than in local currency to avoid inflation. The new agreement is going to be functional until December but if the current inflation rate is anything to go by, the mine employees can not sustain themselves with the proposed salaries.

“To make matters worse, allowances are not talked about in their negotiations. Allowances like underground allowances, night shift allowance, acting allowances, and standby allowance are peanuts . The problem is that the Chamber of Mines does not want to accommodate other unions. They want to play around with Associated Mine Workers Union at the expense of mining employees.”