BY JAMES MUTASA

A former employee of Sandak World Manufacturing (Pvt) Ltd company, Melon Gandanhamo, has taken the entity to the Labour Court appealing against a determination by the Designated Agent for the National Employment Council for the Commercial Sectors of Zimbabwe, Tichafara Viriri, who recently denied her terminal benefits after 20 years of service.

Viriri averred that Gandanhamo who had served Sandak World for more than 20 years had been on a fixed term contract and therefore not eligible for terminal benefits. This was despite the fact that Gandanhamo was engaged in 2002 and only signed a single contract of employment then.

According to Viriri’s determination, Gandanhamo had sued Sandak World Manufacturing (Pvt) Ltd a company which deals with the manufacturing and selling of plastic shoes such as Sandak, Pushes, Shooters, Patapata, Gumboots including Tommy and School Shoes, for allegedly unlawful termination of her employment contract.

In her submissions to Viriri, Gandanhamo had claimed US$8842.00 as terminal benefits; a claim which consists of notice pay, cash in lieu of leave days, gratuity, compensation for the loss of employment and back pay for March, April, and May.

“On the basis of the foregoing findings the Applicant’s case is hereby dismissed for lack of merit,” reads part of Viriri’s determination which went on thus, “the Applicant’s contract of employment expired and was never unlawfully terminated. The Applicant must be compensated for 13 days in March 2023 and 2.5 days as cash in lieu of leave,” concluded Viriri’s determination.

Gandanhamo told The Worker that Viriri had wrongly determined that her contract of employment had expired.

“The Designated Agent erroneously determines that my contract of employment had expired alleging that I was employed on a fixed term contract of employment. How can l be employed under a fixed term contract? For the record I was employed in the year 2002 and it is absolutely wrong and unlawful to declare that I was under fixed term contract for over 20 years," Gandanhamo said.

‘How can Tichafara Viriri a seasoned Designated Agent in the National Employment Council for the Commercial Sector use a Collective Bargaining Agreement of the National Employment Council for the Engineering and Iron and Steel Industry to quantify terminal benefits for an employee of Sandak World a company in the Commercial Sector,’ Gandanhamo told The Worker.