By RABECCA CHIPANTA –
TANZANIA Zambia Railway Authourity (TAZARA) expects to lose more than K350, 000 in revenue due to the continued work stoppage by workers on the Zambian side.
Head of public relations, Conrad Simuchile said the company would lose revenue from passenger and luggage transportation due to the continued work stoppage.
He said the revenue loss was mostly arising from non-movement of passenger trains for the Friday (Nakonde )and Saturday (Kapiri-Mposhi)bound trains respectively.
He added that the losses would also be as a result of non-movement of this week’s Tuesday Nakonde and Wednesday Kapiri-Mposhi-bound trains respectively.
“The revenue that was expected but now foregone, from these train movements is K176,250.00, of which K144,250.00 was expected from passenger tickets sales and K32,000.00 was from luggage charges,” he said.
Mr Simuchile said management appreciated the workers grievances for the adjustment of the dollar exchange rate base for their salaries.
He added that this was applicable to all workers across the board including non-unionised.
He, however, said that there were procedures and processes to be undertaken before the adjustment was effected.
“The implementation will not happen overnight as demanded by the striking employees. There has been no formal dispute declared between the two parties for them to go on a strike action as required by law,” he said.
He urged the workers to return to work or face the consequences of their actions.