THE Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) reportedly owes its former workers United States dollar salaries of more than six months, with some alleging they are owed from July last year.
The disgruntled former workers said the once giant public transporter was only settling their dues in the local currency, Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) .
“The company has failed to pay us in US dollars,” one of the workers said.
“The last pay I received in US dollars was in June last year. I left the company in May this year and they have been failing to settle the arrears.”
Another disgruntled worker said there had been little communication from management over the matter.
“We have created a group as former workers and we are planning to involve lawyers so that we will be able to get our outstanding salaries,” he said.
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Another former worker said she had been going to the Zupco depot in Bulawayo everyday, where she was being shunted from one office to the next.
“I have been going to the Zupco depot in Bulawayo, but whenever I try to reach the managers about the issue of outstanding pay, they have ill-treated me and at times they say the people responsible for finance are unavailable,” she said.
“They have never tried to even offer an apology or communicate with us concerning the issue of our more than six months unpaid salaries.
“They have neglected us and at the moment, some of us have a lot of responsibilities, but due to unpaid salaries, we are now suffering.”
Zupco Kelvin depot manager Melody Dege declined to comment on the matter.
“I cannot comment on the issue of the unpaid salaries over the phone,” she said.
In May this year, NewsDay carried a story wherein former and current Zupco workers alleged that massive corruption is bleeding the public transporter.
The workers also alleged that management was trying to conceal the challenges by cooking financial reports.
Zupco was recently put under the Mutapa Investment Fund as the government pushes to save the ailing State enterprise, which enjoyed a more than two-year public transport monopoly when the world went into lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
The workers alleged that the public transporter is pushing for retrenchment as a cover-up ahead of a potential audit.
They also alleged massive misinformation on receipting and issuing of diesel.
They added that the ruling Zanu PF party paid for buses hired during campaigns ahead of last year’s harmonised elections with diesel and money, but they were diverted to benefit individuals, including senior officials.