Zimbabwe's largest union yesterday threatened a nationwide strike if one of their sacked leaders was not reinstated to his government job, a firing he called unjustified.

Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which gave birth to the country's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said he was sacked on Friday on "spurious grounds".

"I was dismissed on Friday on allegations that I went to attend the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity congress in Khartoum (Sudan) from the 5th to 12th (December) without permission," he said.

In a statement yesterday, ZCTU hinted that Matombo's dismissal from Zimpost, was politically motivated.

"This decision to dismiss the president shows that there was a lot of outside influence. The ZCTU does not rule out political influence in the handling of the matter," the country's largest umbrella trade union grouping said.

The union warned that if Zimpost does not "rescind its decision" in seven days, it would call a national strike to "protest the particular case... and the general victimisation and violation of human and trade union rights".

ZCTU has in recent years organised national strikes against government policies such as hikes in the price of fuel, taxation and last year over the economic crisis.

Late last year Matombo and several other top union leaders were arrested for holding an illegal march when they tried to take to the streets over the deepening economic problems and what they said was abuse of workers' rights.

The country's leading opposition, MDC was born in 1999 out of the labour movement.

Its leader Morgan Tsvangirai was secretary general of the ZCTU for years before he turned to politics. – Sapa-AFP.