Job losses result of ‘bad’ colonial era laws — President

Harare Bureau
THE wave of job losses triggered by a Supreme Court ruling validating termination of contracts via three-month notices is the result of “bad” colonial era laws that are unfair, unjust and unacceptable, President Mugabe has said.

The President said while the court interpreted the letter of the law, Government was working on a draft of labour regulation amendments to create a win-win situation for employers and employees.

He was addressing Zanu-PF’s National Consultative Assembly at the party’s headquarters in Harare yesterday.

President Mugabe said some employers were taking advantage of the Supreme Court ruling to dismiss workers without the option of a retrenchment package.

“We have the courts, they have interpreted our law on the labour relations between workers and their employers; and they have said the law says that an employer can dismiss, discharge his employees, his workers upon giving that worker three months’ notice,” said President Mugabe.

“Well, not all the laws had yet been modified or amended by us, especially the bad ones. But this one comes from the past; and that’s what the settler employers wanted of course. But even in their case, they didn’t follow that law.

“But now what has occurred is that when that judgment was passed, oh, organisations and companies and employers who had wanted to discharge portions of their workers began now sending people into the streets  . . .

“Well, Government could not accept that. Even if one is given three months’ notice, what is three months’ notice when you would have worked 10 years, 20 years? What do you get after that? (What is) the retrenchment package for the disparities?

“Perhaps you may be given salary or wages. That is three months’ wages and that is about all.

“And what pains is that the workers now become a real community of disadvantaged people different from those who yesterday had no jobs. But these ones had jobs and have lost the jobs . . .

“We have said no, that is not fair, it’s not just, it is not acceptable and it doesn’t make for the creation of jobs. That is why we have been working on an amendment of the law to ensure the employer will have the rights, but the rights to discharge an employee must be based on sound consideration that the worker, is he neglecting his duties? Is he failing to execute his duties, lacking skills?”

President Mugabe questioned the morality of employers sending home breadwinners.

“To us, there should be some morality governing employers. When a person is employed, that becomes the source of living for him and his family, for her and her family, and it should not be an easy matter to get rid of a person,” charged President Mugabe.

“You just throw him in the street and just forget. We do not want economics of that matter. All of us — together, employers and employees — are all developers, developers of the country.

“It is not just a venture to make money; it’s a venture we are engaged in to develop our country, to transform our resources in mining, agriculture etcetera.”

President Mugabe said Government was also promoting development of the informal sector, pointing out that investment and agricultural support facilities from countries such as China, Russia, Brazil and Belarus had potential to create employment.

“We are inviting more investment as you have been reading from the Press. We are happy our Chinese friends are assisting, the Russian side also assisting in agriculture, we have got equipment from Brazil and from Belarus recently.

“Lots of equipment has been offered and this will create lots of room in agriculture and from agriculture, more employment will be created.

“But we would also want just to look at things from the point of view of employment of people by our companies. We also want to look at the possibility of making employees employers; give them some task, equip them with tasks, make them create SMEs of their own in the informal sector.

“So (let us) look at the problem from both sides, how to accommodate those who have been thrown into the street, but at the same time close the door and amend the law so that the employer cannot have that latitude which he has, the capacity which the law gives at the moment to do as he pleases with the workers, the workers are precious and we do not want to see the street with people seeking jobs, without jobs.”

President Mugabe also took the opportunity to remind Zanu-PF members of the sacrifices made during the struggle to liberate Zimbabwe.

He said as the nation celebrated Heroes and Defence Forces days on 10 and 11 August, respectively, it was of paramount importance that party leaders realise they alone were not responsible for bringing about Independence.

“There are the ordinary (people), vanababa nanamai, who gave shelter, who were the water to (liberation fighters) as the fish was swimming. Without the water, without that support, our struggle would have lasted much longer. So we won the fight because we were united,” said the President to loud cheers.

The National Consultative Assembly is constitutionally held biannually and was the first since Zanu-PF’s landmark 6th National People’s Congress of December 2014 that re-aligned the ruling party’s leadership while retaining Cde Mugabe as President and First Secretary.

The meeting brought together Zanu-PF’s top leadership, its Politburo and Central Committee, the Women’s and Youth Leagues, and ruling party legislators.