BY STAFF REPORTER

The move was confirmed by Bata Country Manager Simon Mutisya who said the firm was failing to cope with a huge workforce.

“As you might be aware that some sections of the factory caught fire and might take time to come back on stream. As such some of these sections will be restructured and approximately 10 percent of the workforce has been affected. Approximately 106 workers out of 1200 have been retrenched,” he said.

Workers expressed shock and surprise at the move and said that they were caught unawares with no plans for the future. They also said that there were no retrenchment packages for them even though they had served for up to 10 years each.

The Zimbabwe Footwear and Tanners Workers Union General Secretary Enos Mwerenga said the union was intervening for due processes and fairness to prevail.

“The issue was haphazardly done for there was no due process which was done. Currently its regarded as internal process for they are having it in works council yet the affected employees are at home. As a union we are following the case closely but we can't do much since its still internal. We are trying to engage the Human Resources manager they are being said they are in meetings for the past days,” said Mwerenga.

He added that ZFTAWU was engaging workers at BATA since there is grapevine that the firm is contemplating retrenching more workers.

Some of the affected workers expressed disappointment over management’s approach to the issue.

“We are very disappointed by the development. We weren’t notified about the retrenchment and we don’t have plans as we are approaching a festive holiday. The most worrying thing is that we don’t have packages after we worked for more than ten years,” said Michael Sibanda.