adminLabour Matters Davies Ndumiso Sibanda
One of the very difficult things to manage at workplaces is matters that have something to do with cultural and African traditional beliefs because these matters are not provided for in our labour legislation.Zimbabwean Labour legislation does not recognise cultural beliefs and traditional healers as reasonable justification for any workplace related matters involving employees.
The law, however, allows employers and workers to engage on these matters at NEC and workplace works council levels and agree on how to handle these matters. For example, while the Labour Act does not provide for recognition of traditional healers for purposes of granting sick leave, a few NECs accept sick leave notes by traditional healers in terms of particular industry collective agreement.
There are many challenges associated with recognition of cultural practices at the workplace as most of them are viewed by many employers as disruptive to work. John requested for a month’s sick leave to go and train as a traditional healer, the employer refused the request. John tried to use vacation leave or unpaid leave but the employer objected arguing that John is a key member of the production team and could only be released at annual shut down. John resigned and went for the training.
Other complex matters involve workers who after being allocated company vehicles take vehicles for traditional “fortification” procedures so that misfortunes do not befall the employee as he drives it. Some employees will even put traditional objects in vehicles. The problem arises where the vehicle has to be shared or used by other employees who object to drive alleging the vehicle has been “fixed, ilungisiwe, yakagadzirwa” a thing that could lead to misfortunes.
Allocated workers also become hostile at any suggestion that the vehicle has to be shared. There is no easy solution to this challenge.
I recall an employee who requested leave to go and prepare for a graduation ceremony for traditional healers as he was graduating. While the employee was serious about his request, it drew mixed reactions from employees and supervisors alike, in the end the employee was granted his vacation leave days.
Such cases tend to open a can of worms as other employees will also demand time of dubious traditional functions.
In one workshop I was told of a story of a worker who missed work for several days and he alleged he had been taken by a mermaid (Njuzu).
Although the story sounded “crazy”, nobody in management was willing to accompany the worker to the pool where the worker alleged he was. I am told the worker had a letter from a traditional healer confirming his story. The employer gave the worker a final warning for absence and did not pay for the days of absence.
In exercising leniency, the employer said he recognised that the employee was a strong believer in African traditions.
The issue is not whether the employer was right but that he was faced by a difficult situation which could easily put him on a collision course with traditionalists amongst his employees.
Some workers have claimed their performance problems are a result of unhappy spirits that need to be appeased and as such they need time off to go and perform traditional rituals. The workers will blame their poor performance and misconduct on angry spirits. They will plead with the employer for time to go and appease spirits.
I recall a case of a manager whose car broke down and was temporarily allocated a pool car that had just returned from taking the mortal remains of an employee to his rural home for burial. The manager refused to use the car saying it should be given to older drivers first who know tradition to be cleansed to remove the spirit of the departed colleague before others could use it.
The manager elected to share transport with a colleague and left the vehicle behind.
There have been reported cases of managers taking traditional medicine to their offices in the evenings or weekends to fortify the offices so that the managers do not lose their jobs. Such practices are difficult to manage. I have lost count of cases of employees who pass on while on duty only to find unusual traditional objects when emptying their drawers and cupboards to the extent that at times close family members have to be called to remove the objects.
On many occasions during disciplinary hearings and job interviews workers bring along various types of traditional objects and medicines believed to assist the employee to be found innocent or get a job. I shall not venture into whether these work or not but these things are there in workplaces and present challenges to managers and workers as no book or college prepares one for them.
Not long ago an employee requested a few days off from the employer to have his grandmother’s “shadow” (isithunzi, mumvuri) removed. The employee said he could feel the weight on his shoulders and such it is affecting productivity. The employer was not sure what to do as the worker was a reasonable employee and had never given problems other than this “weird” request.
In the end the employer and worker agreed on acceptable time for the worker to take vacation leave to attend to his problem.
Examples given are just a few of the complex traditional cultural matters organisations have to deal with. I am of the view that the best way is to stick to the provisions of the Labour Act and bend backwards as guided by labour relations and business prudence.
Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: e: [email protected] cell: 0772 375 235
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter