Staff Reporter
CHIPINGE- Town Council has reinstated its seven workers who they fired through cellphone text message in November 2020 after becoming permanent employees by default.
The seven have been called back to work with the help of labour ministry, pending compensation from November last year to March 2021.
Post On Sunday has heard that these seven employees were serving under the Municipal Police Section from March 2019 and engaged on a six months fixed term contract which was to expire by the month end of December 2019.
As of January 2020, all workers retained to work and continued performing their duties without changes, and no contract was signed.
Of imperative to note is the fact, that the employer did not place any form of written documented contract for 10 months spunning from January 2020 to October 2020 and only to present a contract in the month end of October valid for the month of November to which the employees denied signing submitting that they had fallen under a silent contract thus a contract without limit of time hence had become permanent employees by default according to the Labour Act.
The Labour Act (Chapter 28:1) Section 12(3) stipulates that, “A contract of employment that does not specify its duration or date of termination other than a contract for casual work or seasonal work or for the performance of some specific service shall be deemed to be a contract without limit of time.”
It is however alleged that on October 31, 2020 the seven were denied work by their employer with the directive of the Chief Security Officer by means of an SMS text message to which they then forwarded the matter to the Ministry of Labour who have been handling the case.
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