adminSamuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
A WORKERS’ committee is an integral component of the management of any organisation – serving as the fulcrum and nerve centre – of industrial democracy that bridges the gap between workers and management. Since settler occupation in 1890, successive governments in Rhodesia encouraged economic development along capitalist and racist lines and the biased policies and practices ensured that control of the economy remained in white hands while severely limiting the diffusion of technological and scientific skills among blacks.
The black worker stood under two interlocking handicaps in that – as an African, was subjected to the overall system of discrimination and as a worker, was also a victim of particular regulations which prevented him from participating in the determination of their conditions of service by excluding them from the definition of ‘employee’.
1959 saw a move to incorporate black workers into the definition of employee and allow for the existence and legal operation of African trade unions, which generally functioned as consultative bodies, without the power to participate in decision-making.
However, in 1981 the new Government committed itself to changing the structure of industrial relations in the country, from one characterised by total employer domination to one characterised by worker participation indecision-making.
This saw the introduction of workers’ committees and works councils, the combined function of which was supposed to be the democratisation of decision-making in industry and the improvement of labour-management relations.
The country now has legal instruments that regulate the formation and functions of workers’ committees – the Labour Relations (Workers’ Committees) (General) Regulations, Statutory Instrument 372 of 1985 as read with sections 23, 24 and 25A of the Labour Act, Chapter 28:01.
Workers’ committees are nominated and elected by workers to represent them in discussions or negotiations with their employer.
Modern workers committees must be able to balance and marry the interests of their constituents and those of the organisation. They must avoid the danger of taking it as fashionable to disagree with management or make unreasonable and unrealistic demands. Such confrontational, winner-take-all mentality makes workplaces ungovernable and lowers productivity and profitability of the organisation as a lot of time is spent in trying to resolve unnecessary conflicts.
The essence of quality representation should not be left to chances because there are several historical instances where worker representatives have erred and misinterpreted the purpose of their existence.
In most cases, with the exception of professional institutions, the average level of education among workers is still relatively low. There is still a tendency among workers to choose the most vocal and outspoken but semi-literate workers to represent them.
Due to limited education, these representatives cannot interpret labour laws for the benefit of the workers they represent, thus rendering the quality of their leadership questionable.
Such representatives cannot match their well-qualified and experienced management counterparts in works council meetings and other fora.
This relatively low level of literacy among the worker representatives also means that they cannot interpret the balance sheet or profit and loss account of the company, let alone understand the effects of the world economic recession on their company. Concepts such as capacity utilisation become even more perplexing to unsophisticated worker representatives.
Works council meetings should not be turned into battlefields where workers take aim and shoot down management proposals as such intransigencies are self-defeating.
When an employee has committed an offence and is brought to a disciplinary hearing, most worker representatives wrongly believe that their duty is to defend the accused employee even on an open-and-shut case. Instead of looking at facts as they are, they find flimsy reasons to complicate and frustrate the disciplinary process.
Employees who are clearly guilty are left to go scot-free.
Worker representatives, like other employees, are not above the law and should observe company rules and regulations. A growing number of disciplinary cases involving workers’ committee members have been dealt with by the courts. In the case of Chidare vs Chibuku Breweries (2005) the Labour Court upheld the dismissal of a workers’ committee chairman for participating in an illegal strike. The court found the appellant to have been arrogant and insubordinate to his employer.
In a similar ruling in the case of Zesa versus Mare (2005), the Supreme Court reiterated the fact that worker representatives are first and foremost employees of the organisation, and should conduct themselves within the framework of existing rules and procedures.
The solution to all these problems lies in having worker representatives who are clear on their rights and obligations.
The worker-management relationship is one of “give-and-take”.
Ill-informed and overzealous worker representatives have no place in workplaces of the future.
“Workers’ committees should be adequately trained in labour laws, leadership skills and basic business concepts. It is in the employers’ interest to play their part and invest in the training of their worker representatives.
“Any organisation that ignores this and disregards the workers’ committee is doing so at its own peril because these representatives has capacity to throw spanners in the management’s work and at the end of the day the profitability of the organisation sneezes,” said a labour officer in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare.
The labour expert added that workers committees should not be disillusioned by industrial conflicts epitomised in victmisation, misconduct charges and retrenchments.
“These incidents are always there and unavoidable. In some cases they are meant to frustrate, but in some cases are genuine. Workers committees should be respected, and their input is crucial in works councils,” added the labour expert.
A member of the workers’ committee at one of the mining companies at Chiadzwa diamond fields, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “There is serious victimisation of workers and we no longer complain for fear of being fired or victimised.
“Of late, there has been arbitrary non-renewal of contracts, with the company citing viability problems.
“Workers are being dismissed on flimsy charges and we believe employers are seeking to reduce their workforce without paying retrenchment costs. We are considering taking legal action.”
He said workers’ concerns such as the lack of protective clothing and late payment of salaries were not being addressed as the employer had instilled a lot of fear among the workers.
“The workers committee has become redundant and workers have chosen to remain quiet rather than risk being fired,” he said.
Another worker who declined to be named said: “We have been reduced to a bunch of slaves and most of us are afraid to complain for fear that contracts might not be renewed. Some of us have not been paid for two months while others have gone close to four months without pay and no one dares to engage the authorities because there is so much fear among the workers.”
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