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FOR over a decade now, the three parties to the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF), Government, Labour and Employers have been engaged in a cat-and-mouse game at the expense of other stakeholders.
Through it all, the TNF, the forum that was set up to discuss and find solutions to the socio-economic challenges facing the nation has been operating in fits and starts.
Regrettably much of the stuttering can be traced to one partner, Labour, which has pulled out on various occasions and which, true to form, snubbed a meeting called by Government to discuss the deferment of the civil service paydays on Monday.
The cat and mouse games began on April 23, 2003 when the ZCTU withdrew from the forum citing Government’s decision to unilaterally increase the price of fuel.
Workers rightly believed their representatives were concerned that such an increase would eat into disposable incomes through increased transport costs for both goods and services.
For 18 months, Labour was estranged from the other partners and in that time actively meddled in opposition politics undermining the trust other partners had in its commitment to dialogue.
The ZCTU returned to the TNF fold in mid-December 2004, but two months had hardly lapsed before it withdrew again citing the Government’s decision to deport a delegation from the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
Yet the Cosatu delegation had flown into Zimbabwe on a political mission that had nothing to do with labour or the social contract.
The ZCTU leaders rejoined the forum on November 2, 2005 where a technical committee was set up to look into various issues of national interest in line with the TNF’s founding principles.
Through that committee, a Prices and Incomes Stabilisation Protocol was mooted and a document drafted with the objectives of promoting economic growth, bringing down inflation and ensuring that the resultant benefits were properly shared. However, the protocol remains unsigned to this day.
Labour was again at the centre of the impasse, but this time with employers who it wanted to agree to raise minimum wages in line with the Poverty Datum Line.
The long and short of it is that it is only when the spirit of tripartitism is invoked, that workable solutions to address prevailing challenges are found.
The TNF should be revived to deliberate on macro-economic fundamentals that would see companies produce at capacity and Government get adequate revenue to be able to pay workers well and on time.
Government needs each partner’s support to bring speedy economic turnaround.
A stable economy is the only way social partners can have their demands met via a functional and binding social contract.
This is why Labour and employers need to meet halfway. We are encouraged by the fact that when there were impasses in the past both partners made concessions that enabled dialogue to move forward.
We feel similar concessions should be made on the issue of pay dates.
Online Reporter