The impasse between management and employees at Agribank has been resolved following an urgent meeting convened late Monday which saw employees being awarded a 100 % hardship allowance, Zim Morning Post can reveal.
The emergency meeting between workers committee and management was prompted by threats to stage a sleep in by workers last week calling for a cushioning allowance commensurate with the current state of the economy.
Zim Morning Post is reliably informed that the ‘hardship allowance’ will be disbursed this week.
The tense meeting was attended by Agribank Chief Executive Sam Malaba and other top management.
In an interview with this publication on Tuesday, an official from Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers Union(ZIBAWU), Tiri Marimo said the stand-off has been resolved his organisation negotiated on behalf of the workers.
“It was resolved that the all non-managerial employees will get a 100 percent cushioning allowance meaning that they will get double the salary to curb the current economic hardships being faced by the employees,” Marimo said.
A highly placed source within management said the move was pre-planned and not a knee-jerk reaction of the employees’ threats of an industrial action.
“Well, we value our human resource and we had planned to award this cushion allowance to follow trends in the banking sector.
“For instance FBC and MBCA did the same and we strive for world class standard and well-being of our staff.
“It was a coincidence that the staff threatened to stage an industrial action,” said the source.
The cushion allowance comes after the Minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube urged the private sector to give their employees allowances to curb the current economic crisis.
“We are going to make an announcement in terms of a cushioning allowance in the next weeks and industries may you to follow suit and look after your employees. We realized companies have been making profits and taking care of their shareholders but leaving out our employees,” said Ncube
