Online Reporter
TODAY Zimbabweans join the rest of the world in celebrating International Workers Day.
A lot has happened since that first International Workers Day in 1891, called by combined labour movements to apply pressure around the world, specifically for an eight-hour working day.
It also sought other reforms in labour practice at the height of laissez-faire capitalism, when most business owners did not recognise that workers had any rights whatsoever.
Zimbabwe joined in after Independence with the new Workers Day holiday on May 1. This was the beginning of our own major reforms of labour law and practical recognition of worker rights.
Many victories for these rights have been won in the 135 years since that first International Workers Day, and the atrocious conditions in so many industries that prevailed as a matter of course then, have been greatly modified.
But we are once again in an era when exceptionally rich people, each worth on paper many billions of dollars, believe that this incredible wealth gives them a right to trample on everyone else.
So those victories for better working conditions are not set in stone. They need to be defended at the very least, and this is not easy in a fast-changing world.
Zimbabwe itself sought practical and pragmatic solutions to ensure that business owners and their managers managed to work harmoniously with the general workforce.
The Labour Act was amended several times to find an acceptable balance of interests. Works councils were introduced into formal sector businesses to deal with issues as they arose.
But at the core of industrial peace in Zimbabwe’s formal sectors was the decision to extend the national employment councils, hitherto largely the preserve of the colonial minority, to include everyone in a practical rather than theoretical way.
The NECs are premised on having equal representation on the councils of representatives of workers and management, backed by a neutral and technically competent secretariat funded equally by both groups.
Their effectiveness unfortunately varies.
Some are very effective with all businesses within their purview registered along with all employees outside managerial ranks individually listed.
A functioning trade union or unions, preferably along with a functioning grouping of employers is an essential requirement so that representatives to the council have general backing.
Such an NEC can hammer out a respectable agreement covering a wide range of issues, but most importantly a fairly uniform grading system and minimum pay for each level.
The other major contribution a decent council offers is an effective arbitration process when a dispute does arise, either one industrywide or more typically within a single company.
When everyone has to explain their position to a rational and neutral official, wild talk becomes meaningless and instead they are forced to be rational and practical.
Much of the industrial peace in Zimbabwe is a direct result of the way a good NEC can sort out issues and make sure everyone is on board and following the laid down standards and agreements reached in the collective bargaining exercise.
Those sectors and industries without a well-functioning NEC should work out how they can convert what they have to something more useful.
As always, the smallest businesses and the unregistered ones are left out, while technically, under labour law, they are for all practical purposes, not covered.
In many cases, these are small family businesses, which often do not need the sort of mechanisms large concerns must have, and in any case when the business owner and staff have to work and eat together in a small business environment, most matters can be sorted out.
But we could perhaps find a simple set of basic standards that cover these smallest concerns. The Labour Act provides a minimum, but something extra for each concern is often required.
Everyone wins when the basic rights of workers are recognised. Workers obviously cannot be treated as robots and trampled upon.
But employers also win and not just with industrial peace.
These days, when more and more positions require an assortment of skills, employers need to treat staff well and recognise their skills so that employees work with some degree of enthusiasm.
