adminSamuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
MONDAY next week is Workers’ Day. Workers’ Day is a national public holiday in Zimbabwe and since 1980 it has been celebrated on 1 May of each year.
The day has its origins within the historical struggles of workers and their trade unions internationally for solidarity between working people in their struggles to win fair employment standards and more importantly, to establish a culture of human and worker rights and to ensure that these are enshrined in international law and the national law of those countries aligned to the International Labour Organisation.
Demand for the annual observance of the day as a public holiday became a rallying point for workers and their trade unions and was one of a number of annually significant days to symbolise and mobilise resistance to unfair labour practices and policies.
Zimbabwean workers this year celebrate the Workers’ Day in the middle of growing concern over their well-being as the economy continues to perform in the negative.
The Workers’ Day is an engagement meant to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers, but in Zimbabwe this year’s celebrations come amid a cloud of uncertainty after thousands of workers were laid off and several companies have closed shop owing to viability challenges.
The country’s two main trade unions — The Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Union (ZFTU) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) — concurred on the need to revive industries so that the silent machines can roar once again and the thousands of professional workers who have either fled the country or retrenched get back to work.
Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU) secretary general Mr Kennias Shamuyarira told The Manica Post in an interview on Wednesday that main celebrations will be at Chishamiso Stadium in Chiredzi, where he will address the workers.
Mr Shamuyarira said this year’s theme will be: Workers Under Siege, Rise Up And Accelerate The Employee Share Ownership Dividend Through Indigenisation And Economic Empowerment.
“The current socio-economic status is very uneven because as a nation we are faced with a situation where there is a serious war between labour and capitalism. This war is not premised on colour, race or ethnicity, but on neo-liberalism and predatory capitalism.
“This is why you find that our industry is full of vultures, it is not allowed to spruce up to full throttle because of short changes between production and output. Monetary gains are channelled to a few bourgeoisies at the expense of the generality of workers who religiously pour blood, tears and sweat for this to happen,” explain Mr Shamuyarira.
Mr Shamuyarira added: “This is why we are now advising our workers to rise up, speak out and take centre stage by exploiting the opportunities that come up with the employee share ownership and directorate ownership of companies.
“We have new rights enshrined in the new constitution as workers, and it is within our rights to fight, speak out, picket and strike without fear of victimisation by the employer”.
Mr Shanuyarira added that focus should be on reviving the economy so that thousands of graduates churned out from tertiary institutions, who have turned to vending, get jobs.
He said Government needs to collect more revenue to fund critical needs such as food, electricity and medicines.
ZCTU secretary general Mr Japhet Moyo said his organisation will hold celebration at 17 centres across the country, a significant reduction from the 23 centres that hosted 2015 celebrations.
He said the reduction was symptomatic of the current economic turbulence that the country was going through.
“This is a result of the turbulence we are going through in which we have lost a number of entities responsible for supporting and sustaining these activities. Workers that have been also supporting these activities are no longer at work, and those still employed, are struggling to raise anything to donate,” he said.
Mr Moyo said their main event will be held in Harare, while other events will be held in major towns like Mutare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Chinhoyi, Zvishavane, Masvingo, Marondera and Chiredzi, among others.
Mr Moyo said they have invited the Ministry of Public Service Labour and Social Welfare has been invited to address the main gathering in Harare.
The ZCTU theme is: Defending Workers Constitutional Rights, Our Prerogative.
“The reason why we chose this theme is in our view that workers do have other constitutional rights and we will not be confining ourselves to wages, salaries and conditions of employment as was in the past. It is within our constitutional rights to work, have electricity, water, education, health and housing. We are no longer focusing on employee/employer issues, but widening our scope to other rights guaranteed and brought about by the new constitution, which unfortunately have not been looked in the past, with a view to have then enjoyed by the workers and respected by employers, Government and other social services providers,” said Mr Moyo, calling for a work environment that rewards enterprise and initiative, one that promotes sound relations between the State, employer and employee.
Contentious issues within the Zimbabwean context include:
Low wages
Companies have either closed or scaled down operations and at the same time struggling to pay workers salaries above the Poverty Datum Line (PDL). Workers, especially civil servants, are still being paid salaries which are inadequate to fend for their families. As a result many workers are in debt.
They either get loans from banks or zvimbadzo from loan sharks in a bid to meet their financial obligations. As a result many are sinking in debt. Majority of workers have turned to vending to augment their meagre salaries.
Job insecurity
More than 6000 workers were fired without benefits following a court ruling allowing employers to terminate contracts of employment without three months notice.
Companies feeling the economic heat stampeded to fire employees that had served them for donkey years without gratuity. Also corporates realising the benefits of hiring contractors have resorted to offering workers short term contracts lasting 6months or 1year. By this, workers are spending their days on a prowl looking for the next job. Some contracts are silent on medical and life insurance policies or pensions.
Accommodation
The majority of workers in Zimbabwe are tenants. Some have been on waiting lists for a long time and several have been duped by housing cooperatives and land barons. The Zimbabwean worker is looking for affordable houses to buy or land to build on without easy. For this cause, Government and corporates must work together to avail decent and affordable accommodation for the workers.
Chronic joblessness
It is said when one door closes, another opens, but this is not applicable in Zimbabwe. When employment contract expires, workers have a torrid time searching for new job. Yes entrepreneurship and enterprise development are part of the solution to workers problems but judging from the nature of the problems, workers feel let down by both Government and private sector.
Online Reporter