The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Wednesday, October 14, 1992 — Workers at Irvin and Johnson Limited in Bulawayo prevented a divisional manager from entering the premises for two hours yesterday in protest against what they alleged was failure by management to award them a pay increase which was due on July 1.

The divisional manager, Mr Douglas Clarke, was only able to enter the premises at about 10AM after officials from the Labour Relations Department in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare had visited the company and addressed the workers.

A spokesman for the workers, who declined to be named, said officials from the Labour Relations Department told workers that they had acted illegally by barring the manager from entering the premises and that they were required to give the department two weeks’ notice before engaging in such action. He stressed, however, that the officials established that the workers had a genuine grievance.

The workers agreed to allow Mr Clarke to enter the premises while they continued negotiations for a pay increase, said the spokesman.

The principal labour relations officer for Matabeleland, Mr Francis Dube, said his office became aware early yesterday morning that a manager had been stopped from entering the company premises and his office did everything possible to defuse the situation.