‘Deal with labour cases urgently’

the welfare of workers’ families and that the matters should be quickly dealt with.
The minister was speaking after the swearing-in ceremony of two new Labour Court presidents, Mrs Emilia Muchawa and Mrs Phildah Muzofa, yesterday.

Minister Chinamasa said to achieve the intended goal, more experienced lawyers should be recruited to join the Office of the Labour Court President.

He said the specialised court required five more presidents to manage the backlog and to timeously deliver judgments.

“Labour cases affect the family members of a worker and there is a need for matters to be timeously determined.

“Labour judgments should be quickly made available. In order to achieve this, there is a need for five more judges at the Labour Court,” said Minister Chinamasa.

Mrs Muchawa, a qualified lawyer, worked for the Legal Resources Centre for 10 years before serving as director for Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association for another 10 years.

Mrs Muzofa worked as a public prosecutor for 12 years before she joined ZWLA. She left ZWLA in 2011 after working for the organisation for five years, to join Uriri Attorneys as a solicitor.

The Labour Court has 14 presidents, two in Bulawayo, one in Gweru and the rest in Harare.
Minister Chinamasa said the figure should increase to 19.

He added that the Judicial Service Commission was in the process of identifying suitable lawyers to join the office of the Labour Court President.

“The Labour Court bench is still understaffed and JSC is still identifying more lawyers with the qualities of a judge.

“Such candidates will be asked whether they are interested or not. It is quite a process and we have to look for really competent people,” he said.

Last month Minister Chinamasa said his ministry was seeking to amend the labour laws to enable the Labour Court to enforce its own decisions without registering awards at the High Court or magistrate court for enforcement.

The process of registering an award with the High Court creates hurdles for most litigants thereby causing unnecessary delays.

The bureaucratic process sees a person seeking to stop execution of the orders moving from the arbitrator to the labour Court to the High Court and back to the Labour Court.

Minister Chinamasa said JSC had already made presentations to him for the anomaly to be corrected.