Godfrey Mutimba
4 October 2008
Workers at Care International, one of the few non-governmental organisations that provide food aid to starving villagers, last week downed tools following a tax dispute with their employers.
The development came at a time the organisation was about to resume its operations following the lifting of the ban on NGOs. Starving villagers in the province had pinned their hopes on the organisation after government failed to feed them.
The workers went on strike demanding an immediate end to being taxed 47% on their salaries, which are paid in foreign currency saying the practice was illegal.
Employees who spoke to The Standard said the strike would continue until their demands were met. They are also demanding that Care International pay them back all the money the workers were taxed over the past months.
"We went on strike after we had a dispute with the company. The company was taxing us 47% and we learnt that it was illegal and engaged our lawyers and successfully won the case at the labour court, but they are still reluctant to refund us and want to continue taxing us," said a worker, who declined to be named.
The workers said the organisation had been instructed by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) to tax the workers 47% of their salaries. The government later reversed the instruction.
They said they were supposed to start distributing food to villagers "anytime soon" after the completion of an assessment of the number of people in need of food aid.
Scores of villagers in Masvingo are surviving on wild fruits such as chakata and matamba because they have run out of both maize and maize-meal.
Care International country director, Stephen Gwayne Vaughan, confirmed the workers were engaged in job action.
"Some workers have engaged in job action. They are disputing the tax bracket system that was enforced by Zimra but we are engaging them to find a solution because we were only complying with the laws of the country," Vaughan said.
Workers vowed not go back to work until they got their money back.
"We won't go back to work until they pay us back and stop taxing us. It is just too much because 47% is close to half of our salaries. We cannot continue to operate like that," said another worker who preferred anonymity for fear of victimisation.
Care International assists drought-ravaged villagers with basic food commodities such as maize meal, cooking oil and beans among other things.
Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of the southern African region, is facing a serious food crisis. The Famine Early Warning System Network has said while the food shortages were being experienced countrywide, the situation had been most severe in the semi-arid areas of Matabeleland.
Presently, indications are that more than 5 million people urgently need food assistance and the number could increase in the coming months as more families run out of food.
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