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Judgment No. SC 32/18
Civil Appeal No. SC 807/16
appellant wrote a letter to the respondent in which he outlined the appellant’s proposal for a
retrenchment package.
The respondent, through his legal practitioners, indicated that he was not agreeable to
the proposals concerning the date of termination of the employment relationship, the housing loan,
performance bonus, personal loan, foreign travel, purchase of a replacement motor vehicle and
furniture.
After some correspondence, the parties failed to agree on the appropriate package and
eventually the matter was referred to arbitration before Arbitrator Bvumbe in terms of s 93 of the
Labour Act [Chapter 28:01]. His terms of reference were the following:
1. “Whether or not ZESA Holding Private Limited was in breach of the terms and
conditions of the contract of employment in respect of Itayi Utah who is employed by
the applicant as Technical Services Director. Employment contract dated 7 August
2004 in respect of the non-fulfilment of the following benefits:
a. Housing loan
b. Personal loan
c. Performance bonus
d. Replacement Motor Vehicle
2. Whether or not the respondent Itayi Utah is entitled to:
a. Foreign Travel
b. Office Furniture
Benefits as part of his retrenchment package.”
Before the Arbitrator, the parties had agreed that the effective date of the
‘retrenchment’ would be the date of the arbitral award (and this agreement was captured in the
arbitral award by Arbitrator Bvumbe). In addition, the arbitrator held that the respondent was not
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