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Tinomuda Chakanyuka, Senior Reporter
FOUR labour unions in the education sector have engaged the Government, pushing for the expeditious alignment of the country’s labour laws to provisions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions.
The unions that are affiliated to Education International (EI) met officials from the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare are pushing for the Government to align the country’s laws with Conventions 87, 98 and 105 of the ILO.
Conventions 98 provides for workers rights to organise and engage in collective bargaining, and convention 105 provides for the abolition of forced labour and Convention 87 provides for workers’ freedom of association and protection of the right to organise.
The unions held a dialogue meeting in Harare last week where they presented their position to the Government which was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Mr Ngoni Masoka.
Some of the unions that attended the dialogue meeting include the College Lecturers Association of Zimbabwe (Colaz), Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Zimbabwe Educational Scientific Social Cultural Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (ZESSCUW) and Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta).
Speaking after the meeting PTUZ president Dr Takavafira Zhou said some sections of the country’s Constitution contradicted the ILO conventions which the country is signatory to.
Dr Zhou said while the Constitution provides for collective bargaining, the same Constitution further created the Civil Service Commissions (CSC) whose functions limits the Government’s right to collective bargaining.
“The Constitution provides for the right to engage in collective bargaining in section 64, but it goes on to create the CSC which takes away Government workers rights to engage in collective bargaining. The CSC takes away workers’ rights to an extent that salaries are determined by the minister in consultation with treasury, which takes away the concept of bargains. Public workers have the right to engage in collective bargaining,” he said.
Dr Zhou said the unions were pushing for the Government to amend sections of the Constitution as well as repeal provisions of the Labour Act that contradict ILO conventions.
“Our position is we should move fast with implementing the ILO Conventions. There’s no point in being signatory to conventions and not implementing them. If our laws are at variance with the conventions, the necessary adjustments should be made,” he said.
Dr Zhou said the unions were confident that Mr Masoka would present their position to the Minister, Cde Prisca Mupfumira and action would be taken to implement the conventions.
He said the dialogue meeting was a positive engagement which set the tone for future engagements between the Government and its workers.
“It was a very good interactive meeting, which we believe will help us to address the challenges we are facing as we interface with Government as workers of Zimbabwe. Each union elaborated the operational challenges it was facing in its line of work and the Permanent Secretary tried his best to answer the concerns raised. We hope the Government will take all the submissions made by all the four unions seriously,” he said.
Dr Zhou said Mr Masoka tried to respond to some of the concerns raised and also made a presentation titled “Labour Law Reforms in Zimbabwe:
Successes and Challenges” during the dialogue meeting. -@irielyan
Online Reporter