Online Reporter
Yeukai Karengezeka-Chisepo-Court Correspondent
The High Court has delivered a landmark ruling that could significantly strengthen the enforcement of labour dispute awards.
In a judgment with far-reaching implications for labour relations, High Court Judge Justice Joel Mambara ruled in favour of former employee Jairos Moyo in his legal battle against Little Hearts Christian College.
The court recognised and adopted a 2022 determination issued by a designated agent of the National Employment Council for Welfare and Educational Institutions, which had awarded Moyo US$13 562,84 in unpaid labour benefits.
Moyo was successfully represented by his lawyer, Mr Aleck Chikoro.
Justice Mambara’s ruling effectively creates a pathway for successful employees to enforce final NEC determinations through the High Court where no appeal or review is pending.
The judgment departs from previous decisions that had held there was no express legal mechanism for registering designated agent determinations for enforcement.
This could mean that final determinations issued by National Employment Council (NEC) designated agents can be recognised and adopted as judgments of the court for execution purposes.
“The true question is whether the High Court, seized with an original application, may, in the exercise of its existing constitutional and common-law powers, give effective judicial force to a final, liquid, unappealed designated agent determination,” Justice Mambara said.
“In my view, it may, and in an appropriate case it must.”
The dispute arose after a designated agent awarded Moyo US$1 925 as a retrenchment package, US$10 412,84 for wage shortfalls, US$1 050 as cash in lieu of leave, and US$175 as gratuity.
Although the determination was issued in November 2022, enforcement difficulties led Moyo to approach the High Court seeking recognition and registration of the award.
The respondent opposed the application, arguing that there was no statutory provision authorising the High Court to register such determinations and that any remedy required legislative intervention.
However, Justice Mambara held that the Constitution empowers the High Court to grant effective relief where rights have already been adjudicated and reduced to a liquid amount.
The judge relied on constitutional provisions guaranteeing labour rights, access to justice, and the court’s inherent powers to develop the common law in the interests of justice.
He said it would be irrational for the law to provide mechanisms for enforcing provisional labour rulings while denying effective remedies for final determinations issued by designated agents.
“It would be strange indeed if the law preserved executable pathways for a non-final instrument, while withholding all effective judicial relief from a final adjudication that has already disposed of the parties’ rights,” he said.
Justice Mambara further warned against creating situations where workers obtain favourable rulings but remain unable to realise the benefits awarded to them.
“The contrary view leaves successful employees with nothing more than a paper victory and thereby defeats both the Labour Act’s evident purpose and the Constitution’s remedial ethos,” he said.
The court stressed that the ruling is limited to final and liquid determinations where no appeal or review is pending and where parties were afforded a fair hearing.
In the order, the court recognised, adopted and made the NEC determination a judgment of the High Court, allowing execution to proceed in the ordinary manner if the employer fails to comply.
