The Zimbabwe Petroleum and Allied workers Union (ZIPAWU) has accused National Oil Infrastructure Company (NOIC) top management of unjust labor practices that has seen the blacklisting and termination of employment of more than forty employees.
Addressing journalists in Harare this morning, ZIPAWU acting secretary general Panganai Chiota accused NOIC Chief Executive Officer and human resources manager of recruiting some employees to terrorise their members.
“Since the emergence of our union, the top management at the National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe (NOIC) has been up and about in a bid to silence us. The CEO (Mr Wilfred Matukeni) and HR Manager (Mr Dzingai Kamungeremu) have recruited 4 employees (names supplied) to terrorise workers and even visiting other employees’ homes so that they renounce their ZIPAWU membership.
“We are also concerned about the unjustified use of labour broking services, where NOIC is outsourcing labour services from human capital companies where we highly suspect that they in turn receive kickbacks from owners of such companies,” Chiota told journalists.
Chiota accused Matukeni of corruptly running his private business using cheap fuel from a NOIC service station near his residence in Greystone Park.
“Instead when we started questioning the rampant corruption at the institution which has also seen the CEO’s private business trucks enjoying cheaper fuel at the NOIC service station in Greystone Park, Harare. For interest’s sake this service station is closer to the CEO’s residence which might have been acquired corruptly to benefit Mr Wilfred Matukeni’s businesses,” Chiota said.
Two former employees at NOIC, Eriya Mashamba and Brian Samaringe accused the NOIC CEO of abusing his powers to suppress their rights.
“We have approached the police and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and even the Prosecutor General’s office and in all cases we have hit a snag. All we want is the overtime money that we are owed by NOIC CEO. He is the chief architect of abuse of office, abuse of his absolute powers in that he is using those powers to trample upon powerless employees,” Mashamba said.
“All we want is just against Mr Matukeni who is abusing his powers, we have signed documents indicating that we worked overtime and were signed by the line manger then George Chiunye. Workers have been wantonly dismissed for expressing their labour rights, some have been dismissed for breaking teacups simply because they are part of the 41 blacklisted employees who are airing their grievances” said Samaringe.
The 41 former NOIC employees have revealed that they are owed a total of US$413 000 in overtime allowances since 2015.
