The pilots downed tools on Tuesday morning and assembled at a car park at the national airline’s headquarters at Harare International Airport.
Informed sources told Radio VOP that the pilots had resorted to the industrial action to demand payment of their outstanding allowances, which haven’t been paid since last year despite promises by management which undertook to clear the outstanding payments.
“The airline owes us a lot. They haven’t fulfilled their pledge to pay us in full. So this is the only language that they can understand,” said a source.
The strike action resulted in the cancellation of an Air Zimbabwe flights to Johannesburg on Tuesday morning.
Air Zimbabwe board chairperson Jonathan Kadzura confirmed the strike and said the national airline had done nothing so far to avert or end the industrial action because it had no money to pay the pilots.
“It is the same old thing. Money, that I don’t have,” said Kadzura when reached for a comment by Radio VOP on Tuesday. Air Zimbabwe pilots went on strike last September demanding payment of their allowances.
