adminOliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
WORKERS’ Day should set the tone for policy initiatives aimed at improving the working conditions and welfare of employees, analysts have said.Despite the challenges many people are facing due to the prevailing economic challenges, they said, workers should still celebrate the day that falls on May 1 every year.
Of late, the economy has been characterised by company closures, scaling down of operations and in some instances, workers going for months without salaries.
However, economic commentators said under the circumstances employees should also come up with ideas that would promote industrial growth and development to create employment and boost the economy.
An economic commentator, Bongani Ngwenya said: “As the country joins the rest of the world in celebrating Workers’ Day, the workers themselves need to come up with ideas to restore industrial growth, development and employment creation.
“This is despite having a number of people losing their jobs through retrenchment and company closures in recent years.”
A labour expert, Ndumiso Sibanda said Workers’ Day was an opportunity for workers to reflect on the past and have dialogue with their employers on future operations.
He said despite the prevailing economic climate, Workers’ Day was still relevant and important to Zimbabwe as a country.
“At the moment, the workers are on the receiving end. Under such circumstances, there’s need for the workers to come up with ideas that they think will promote industrial growth,” he said.
An economic commentator, Trust Chikohora said the country’s infrastructure such as rail and road networks needs to be resuscitated. Attracting foreign direct investment was also important.
He said it is possible for the country’s economy to be rejuvenated.
Chikohora said Zimbabweans should join the rest of the world in observing Workers’ Day.
“Workers’ Day is always important because it’s observed to celebrate the contribution of our workers all over the world, irrespective of the state of the economy. In the case of Zimbabwe, the day is being observed at a time when some workers have been retrenched while others have gone for a long time without pay.
“We need to reflect on that and see what we need to do so that the workers have decent work and are fairly paid.”
“We need to come up with policies that attract foreign direct investment as well as addressing the country’s foreign debt. We need both technical and financial assistance from multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to bring the economy back on its track to create employment.”
Presenting the 2015 national budget in December last year, Finance and Economic Development Patrick Chinamasa revealed that at least 55,000 people in different sectors of the economy had lost their jobs between 2011 and 2014.
However, the government is implementing a raft of measures aimed at promoting industrial growth and development as well as bailing out ailing firms.
Among the measures being implemented is the establishment of Special Economic Zones and the setting up of the Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund (Dimaf).
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are designated geographical regions which operate under special economic regulations which are different from other areas in the same country and they offer special conditions and incentives to promote international competitiveness.
Dimaf is a facility set up by government in partnership with Old Mutual to bail out companies by providing working capital and capital expenditure to qualifying firms at concessionary rates as low as 10 percent per annum to stimulate productivity to competitive levels and create jobs.
Online Reporter