Zambia: Axe Falls on Shoprite Unionised Workers

SHOPRITE management has sacked all unionised workers countrywide following a four-day strike that has paralysed operations.

Shoprite deputy general manager Charles Bota told ZNBC News last evening that all the unionised workers had been dismissed for non-compliance to company regulations.

Earlier, National Union of Commercial and Industrial Workers (NUCIW) said the workers' representatives had reached a compromise with Shoprite management to end the protest over casualisation and a pension scheme.

NUCIW general secretary Feth Paraza said yesterday that management and the union had reached an agreement to end the strike but were yet to sign the agreement by press time.

Labour Minister Austin Liato said he would issue a statement on the matter today.

Shoprite management had issued a memorandum yesterday requesting the workers to report for work failure to which they would be dismissed.

The striking workers have been demanding that Shoprite management releases funds for an earlier pension scheme that full-time employees had been contributing to from the time Shoprite was established in Zambia, up to 2009.

They said their contributions should be given to them before another pension scheme was implemented.

They have also complained about increased casualisation which they claim management has not addressed for a long time.