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Nobukhosi Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
THE Government has registered a new labour body — the Confederation of Zimbabwe Trade Union (CZTU) with the founding president Mr Peter Mpofu committing himself to revolutionising trade unionism.
Mr Mpofu told Sunday News that the union will represent the interests of various sectors, adding that the motivation behind its formation was to end polarisation in the trade union arena.
“The labour body is committed to bringing sanity and relief to all the working population of Zimbabwe through unequivocally advocating for decent wages, salaries and the general conditions of work to all workers in the country.
“The labour body shall, as soon as possible, ensure that there is minimum wage for workers in Zimbabwe as well as make sure that there is fruitful, productive and gainful engagement at the tripartite negotiating forum for a win -win situation between business and labour,” he said.
Mr Mpofu said the organisation was intent on becoming the most transparent representative labour body in Zimbabwe, be non-political and to work towards bringing back workers’ confidence.
“Employees have lost confidence in their workers’ representative bodies with companies closing willy-nilly and employees sent home without any benefits and at the end they could not even get proper legal representation hence the coming of the organisation on board. Some workers’ representative bodies have become political and transformed into political parties and thereby deviating from their purpose of being labour movements. They cannot fulfill their mandate because they are politically compromised but as CZTU we aim to eradicate that for the betterment of the workers,” he added.
Secretary General of the CZTU Mr Manuel Nyawo said the movement was going to change the trade union arena as there have been longstanding issues that lacked proper representation.
“The CZTU will not be subject to any manipulation from outside but will be fully professional in its conduct and represent the workers neutrally and bring about fairness and equality amongst all,” he said.
Mr Nyawo said when dealing with matters relating to the workers, the union will conform to international standards like the International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention.
“As enshrined in Chapter 28:01 of the Labour Act, we will ensure that workers are fully represented and contend about our services,” he said.
He said as of yet, the union has 12 affiliates and the numbers were increasing as there have been a number of unions registering.
“We have the potential to grow much bigger and larger as the biggest industries in the country are on our side. We intend to become the sought after representative body for workers in Zimbabwe, and that is exactly where we are going,” he said.
Online Reporter