The Insider -Haddon and Sly given two weeks to reach agreement with workers

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The Insider - June 2009

Haddon and Sly given two weeks to reach agreement with workers

One of Bulawayo's oldest supermarkets Haddon and Sly, which closed down and fired all its workers nearly four months ago, has been given two weeks to negotiate how it will settle the workers salaries that it owes.

order was given by labour court judge Mr Selo Nare on Tuesday after the company which was taken to court by the workers said it had reopened on June 1 and had reinstated all the workers.

The company laid off 39 workers and they have not been paid from February.

Mrs Doreen Phulu, who represented the company, applied to the court to be given two weeks to negotiate out of court with the workers how the company could pay them the money they were owed.

She said workers could only be paid their wages from money generated from the supermarket.

The workers, who were represented by Jobert Mudzumwe of the Commercial Workers Union of Zimbabwe, said they were against the negotiations because there was not a lot of mistrust between the company and the workers.

They argued that the supermarket was not closed because the company did not have money. They argued it was closed to "fix" the workers because they had refused to accept voluntary retrenchment. The company had also been very arrogant and had refused to negotiate with the workers.

Mudzumwe argued that the owner of the company, Nicholas Van Hoogstraten, who has been in the headlines during the past few weeks, was on a buying spree of shares from various companies so it could not be argued that he did not have money.

Van Hoogstraten tried to expel all the directors of the Rainbow Tourism Group in which he is a substantial shareholder, but the plan flopped at the company's annual general meeting.

Mrs Phulu argued that the question of van Hoogstraten buying shares was irrelevant in this case as it was not Haddon and Sly that was buying the shares.

Mr Nare agreed and noted that van Hoogstraten and his company were two different entities. He also said he felt that negotiations were the best way forward because at the end of the day the two parties, the employer and employees would have to work together harmoniously until the workers retired.

He said the world was full of negotiations. Even in Zimbabwe the inclusive government that was running the country had been reached after negotiations.

Mr Nare said he could not make a determination without hearing evidence about whether the company was able to pay or not. This was going to take time. And if he made his determination, the case was likely to be taken to the High Court because of the amounts involved.

If the company was not happy it could appeal to the Supreme Court. All this would drag the case while workers continued to suffer. It was therefore better for the two parties to negotiate and only come back to the court to address the sticking points.

Mr Nare therefore postponed the case to June 16 to allow for the negotiations.

Posted- 4 June 2009

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