HWANGE COLLIERY Company Limited (HCCL) yesterday won a Supreme Court case against a former employee who had previously won a Labour Court order compelling the company to pay him $15 000 in outstanding skills allowances.
BY SILAS NKALA
After the Labour Court ruling, HCCL, represented by advocate Lucas Nkomo instructed by Esther Sarimana lodged an appeal at the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court bench composed of Bharat Patel, Ben Hlatshwayo and Paddington Garwe — sitting at the Bulawayo High Court — unanimously ruled that the HCCL’s appeal had merit.
They ruled that the money which Francis Zambuko claimed was for the period prior to the dollarisation.
The judges concurred with the defence that although the company and the employer could have agreed on using the United States dollar, it was not yet considered legal as it was during the Zimbabwe dollar era.
Zambuko was employed by HCCL between August 2008 and July 2009 as technical superintendent.
A written agreement was entered into which stated that the company would pay Zambuko a monthly retention allowance of $2 665.
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Clause 1 of the agreement stipulated that the retention allowance would be paid with effect from August 1 2008 in US dollars and would be subject to the employee agreeing to stay on the job for 12 months after which the agreement would be subject to review at the discretion of HCCL.
The company argued that it made the requisite application for approval of the agreement to RBZ, but it was never granted until the issue was overtaken by events when the country adopted the multi-currency regime in February 2009 and the company abolished the retention allowances.
It argued that the facility was only a temporary measure to retain skills.
Zambuko was dismissed on July 30 2009.
He unsuccessfully challenged his dismissal before he filed the matter with the arbitrator claiming payment of the retention allowances from February to July 2009 and an award was granted in his favour.
HCCL filed an appeal against the arbitration award at the Labour Court, which ruled in Zambuko’s favour ordering the company to pay him.
The company then filed an appeal at the Supreme Court to challenge the Labour Court ruling. Zambuko prayed for the dismissal of the appeal.
