Chronicle Editor
Davies Ndumiso Sibanda
Labour Matters
THE touchy subject of whether people should be paid during lockdown is with us again and employers and workers are battling with what comes at the end of January.
The good thing is that many organisations and workers adopted agreed plans that were in place during the previous lockdown and thus there is stability.
The challenge is that for some organisations, the lockdown means the end of the business or there is no money to pay wages at all.
Legal questions that were raised in the last lockdown remain alive and no case has, to my knowledge, been sent to court regarding payment or non-payment during lockdown.
From a legal point, the principle of no work no pay remains alive.
Where the employer fails to pay workers who have not worked due to a lockdown, I do not think it is possible for workers to successfully sue the employer for non-payment of wages.
The employer can easily argue that the Act by the State to close businesses extinguished capacity to make the money thus workers cannot be paid.
In my opinion it is not advisable for workers to take the litigation route, but they should engage the employer and find ways to save both the business and jobs.
Given that Covid-19 is likely to be with us for a long time and we also do not know if we will get vaccines in the near future, parties have to make long-term plans to survive.
Covid-19 has pushed all to think outside the box. Workers need to look for means of survival that will help them despite Covid-19.
They cannot keep holding on to jobs that are being decimated by the pandemic as they run the risk of going home with nothing, simply put, lifetime businesses and jobs are now very few and thus we have to move to new viable ventures that are likely to take us beyond Covid-19.
Trade unions need to educate workers about reading the winds of change and prepare workers for survival during and after Covid-19.
Low hanging fruits like working from home have to be embraced.
Workers in some sectors can easily share all activities done at the factory and take them home even if it means a whole room becomes dedicated to work.
Issues related to working from home costs and compensation can also be dealt with.
In cases where workers wanted to work and the employer wanted workers to come to work but Government has said no, parties can only resort to measures outlined above or just sit at home and apply the principle of no work no pay.
In some cases, workers have been asked to take leave during lockdown so as to be paid for the period, and in most cases workers have agreed to avoid losing out on salaries.
However, the question on whether someone can take leave during a lockdown remains hanging.
In my opinion, once parties have agreed to go on leave in order to be paid, there is no problem. What matters is that parties have mutually agreed.
There are also cases where workers have asked to be paid and put in the hours after Covid-19 lockdown is over, others have taken salary cuts and suspension of certain benefits in order to balance interests of both workers and the business.
In conclusion, parties should do what is best to keep workers and business alive but at the same time, adapt to survive as lockdowns are likely to remain with us for some time.
Having a responsive progressive business model is the answer.
Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: [email protected]
Online Reporter