The Zimbabwe Petroleum and Allied Workers Union (Zipawu) has vowed to fight the rampant injustices and corruption bedevilling the country’s petroleum sector.
The union, formed in 2020, came on board as a result of decades old suppression of the petroleum sector issues which were bundled under the energy unions.
Speaking recently to NewZimbabwe.com Zipawu president Samuel Hova said time had come to end injustices being faced by workers in the petroleum industry.
“Zipawu is a union which was registered in 2011 and in 2020 we got our certificate. As you are aware, we represent workers in the petroleum, gas and biofuels sector under the energy industry. We have a very new team. Most of the leaders are still quite new and we are organizing a string of meetings to build capacity,” he said.
Hova said the union’s take-off since 2020 was choked by the Covid-19 pandemic and has since prioritised dealing with the challenge of labour broking, corruption and poor salary payments affecting the sector.
He said most companies in the sector have resorted to using workers availed through the labour broking companies. This, he said is problematic because the practice ends up bleeding workers who are forced to share the spoils of their sweat with these companies.
“Apart from this, there is also the challenge of continuous placement of workers on contract employment. So, you will see some of the workers going for five years on contracts. This is uncalled for, and we will definitely fight such injustices in our sector,” he said.
Hova criticised some of the top managers in the petroleum sector for working in cahoots with labour brokers to get kickbacks in turn while putting the lives of the workers at risk.
“We also call upon the government to urgently launch investigations into the matter. I suspect the illicit practice has even spread beyond the petroleum sector,” he said.