FORMER Ziscosteel employees are still hopeful of getting their gratuities from government following their mass retrenchment in 2016.
The news of Kuvimba Mining House acquiring Ziscosteel has not brought much joy as most of these pensioners cannot be absorbed into the new company due to old age.
However, Redcliff legislator, Lloyd Mukapiko, said workers are still hopeful that government will hear their pleas for pensions payout.
“The issue of Ziscosteel pension payout is a disturbing story. Ziscosteel workers were retrenched in 2016 according to the Pensions and Providence Funds Act. Ziscosteel employees should then have been given their pensions within three months or 90 days of retrenchment. They should have been paid their pensions in December 2016 but up to now they have not been settled,” Mukapiko said.
He said when government enacted the Ziscosteel Debt Assumption Bill, there was hope that the workers would get their dues.
“We received information through FML Board of trustees indicating that government, through the Ministry of Finance, had deposited $39 million into the FML account to disburse to beneficiaries in December 2021. Considering that over 3000 workers are supposed to have benefited, it means that each worker would have been given US$70 in pensions, which is quite sad. Therefore, there was an uproar, and the money was not disbursed,” Mukapiko he said.
The First Mutual Life has since then not disbursed the money.
“Ziscosteel contributed much to the economy. Therefore, their former workers are important, and they must be treated with dignity. We are going to fight tooth and nail to ensure that the former employees are given what’s due to them,” said Mukapiko. – (NewZimbabwe)
