admin“During our last Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) with the Government and the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe last year, we agreed on many issues to amend the current Labour Act so that it conforms to the principles of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Currently, we have three issues that as parties to the TNF we are yet to agree on.
“The issues are to do with the protection of salaries in the event of a company closure, casualisation of workers and the need to promulgate one piece of legislation governing all employees in both the public and private sector,” ZCTU secretary-general, Mr Japhet Moyo, said in an interview yesterday.
He said: “When a company is headed for closure or liquidation employers should give preference to paying the workers outstanding salaries before closing down or liquidating.
“For example, there are cases where firms have been liquidated and employees have not been paid their outstanding salaries,” he said, adding that before effecting retrenchments the law should be specific on how much the employee would get.
Mr Moyo said on casualisation of workers ZCTU noted with concern that some employers showed reluctance to employ their workers permanently resulting in such employees as messengers serving the organisation for years as contract workers.
This was in contrast to the ILO principle, which requires that an employee can work as a contract employee for a period not exceeding six months.
“Some organisations have employed people for years as contract workers. For example, we have a scenario where messengers have served respective organisations as contract workers for 10 years. While it is a fact that such services of a messenger are always required, the companies should give the messengers permanent status on their positions,” he said.
He said parties to the TNF also needed to agree on one piece of legislation that would govern all workers.
He said at the moment, Zimbabwe had various pieces of legislation such as the Public Service Act for civil servants that does not apply to workers in the private sector. He said this divided the workers.
“One piece of legislation will assist in dealing with issues such as strikes. At the moment, you find that it takes too long for the workers to go for a strike as a result of aspects like the need to give a 14-day industrial job
action notice as well as coming up with show-cause orders,” he said.
Between 2002 and 2008, the ILO Committee of Experts on the application of Recommendations and Conventions and the International Labour Conference Committee on the application of Labour Standards have urged Zimbabwe to ensure that its legislation fully complied with the principles of the world labour body’s conventions.
Online Reporter