adminFelex Share Harare Bureau
ALL State Procurement Board employees do not have employment contracts, a situation legal experts yesterday said was a violation of the Labour Act and a “landmine” for labour disputes.
Our Harare Bureau can reveal that SPB staff members, including principal officer Cledwyn Nyanhete, do not know whether they are casual or permanent workers or if they have fixed term contracts.
They were only given offer letters upon employment stating their appointments and pay.
There are also fears that unqualified people could be working for the board after being recruited unprocedurally.
Section 12 of the Labour Act stipulates that an employer upon engagement of an employee shall inform the employee in writing of the particulars which include the duration of the contract, the probation period, the applicable code of conduct, remuneration and how it is calculated, benefits receivable, bonus or incentive production scheme or any other benefit that can be provided in the contract of employment.
SPB chairman Charles Kuwaza could not be reached for comment on the matter as he was reportedly out of the country until next week.
The latest adverse audit report from the office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General acknowledged the SPB was operating in “the absence of a human resource policy.”
The report also stated that there was no policy document to guide the SPB when issuing staff loans, a situation that could see loans being given to undeserving cases.
Sources yesterday said by not offering workers contracts, the board was running away from employer obligations. “Not even a single employee has a contract and the board is seized with the matter but it is proving to be a stooge board because nothing is being done,” said one source.
“The only benefit we know, because it was in the offer letter, is that of a contract mobile phone line. Without the contracts, some of the benefits that we are entitled to can easily be denied. We were promised, even during the Zim dollar era, that contracts would follow after getting the appointment letters but nothing has materialised to date. Some who came after 2009 are still being employed in the same manner.”
Another source said the workers did not know whether they were permanent or casual workers.
“If one was to be fired, he would not even know what or not to claim because there is no contract,” said the source.
“What we need are contracts stipulating our employment conditions because to us the board is running away from obligations. That is why we were refusing to declare assets before conclusion of employment contracts.”
The workers last year declared their assets albeit under duress.
The source said the absence of a human resource policy had seen Kuwaza inexplicably hiding five brand new top-of-the-range government vehicles for three years. The all-terrain vehicles, valued at a total of $210,000, were meant for allocation to senior staff at the SPB but are gathering dust in the parking bay of a five-star Harare hotel.
derick.khumalo