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Cletus Mushanawani
News Editor
OF late, private employment agents have been sprouting up across the country, with some of them allegedly duping prospective employees.
Some agencies are behind the recruitment of Zimbabweans who end up being enslaved in foreign lands with no one to turn to.
With their traveling documents confiscated, some of the victims are subjected to inhuman treatment in the foreign countries.
This week, Post Business caught up with the national chairman of the Private Employment Agencies of Zimbabwe (PEAs), Mr Caleb Kunze, to discuss this and other issues.
Q: Thank you for setting aside some time for this conversation Mr Kunze. So tell us, who is Caleb Kunze?
A: I am a human resources practitioner with over 22 years’ experience. I love golf. I am the founder of Eve Golf Academy and Managing Consultant of Eve Employment Consultancy (Pvt) Ltd. This organisation was founded in 2006 to fill the professional, technological, academic and social gaps in local organisations
Q: What is Private Employment Agencies of Zimbabwe (PEAs)?
A: The Private Employment Agencies are recruitment agencies registered under the Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare. Their operations are regulated by the Labour Relations (Employment Agencies) Regulations, 1985. These regulations apply to people who run private employment agencies and job-seekers.
Q: What motivated players in this sector to form this organisation?
A: The major push factor was the disorder in recruitment patterns in Zimbabwe, resulting in uncontrolled labour migration in and out of Zimbabwe without significant benefits to stakeholders in the labour industry. Zimbabwe has become a rich source of cheap skilled and semi-skilled labour force for the world, but is not benefitting much from its human capital investment.
This irregular scenario has to be regulated into structured systems to benefit the Government, private employment agencies and other stakeholders, hence the decision to come together and speak with one voice. We also want accountability of all players involved in this line of business as some
Q: Being the pioneers of PEAs, how will you steer it to become a household name?
A: We have to come up with a self-regulatory association with its own constitution in order to structure standard operation procedures to be used in the recruitment of both the local or international labour force. Our constitution should be subordinate to national and international labour guidelines as we also seek to participate in future promulgation of statutory changes.
Q: In any organisation, human resources are the most important assets, as HR practitioners, what are some of the challenges being faced by organisations in coming up with the best candidates for the job?
A: Most organisations are constrained by time and lack of a designed human capital resource database, thereby undermining effective recruitment and selection of best fits for job offers.
Particularly in Zimbabwe, the business community is minimally conversant with the essence of private employment agency services and how to best utilise them to their economic advantage. In public institutions and local authorities, there can be outside interference which may also affect the fairness of the selection processes.
Q: We have seen the mushrooming of employment agents, especially those that purport to recruit domestic workers. How will you address this issue and ensure that people are not short-changed or end up being victims of criminals masquerading as employment agents?
A: The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare should lead by fostering a statutory requirement that prohibits getting employment outside Zimbabwe without passing through licenced public or private employment agency organisations.
The statutory requirement should also make it illegal to advertise for the recruitment of labour by outside labour agencies or unregistered local employment agencies. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade should play an integral role in regulating labour outflows from Zimbabwe.
Q: Some Zimbabweans, especially women, have fallen victim to human trafficking under the guise of being hired as domestic workers to work in foreign lands. What can be done to address this issue and safeguard these people’s rights and dignity as well as fair treatment wherever they will be employed?
A: No Zimbabwean labour migrants should be posted to countries with restrictive domestic labour laws or where racial segregation is rife. All labour migration from Zimbabwe should have visa applications supported by confirmation from the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare.
Private or public employment agencies should be the only international labour recruitment entities in Zimbabwe. In my opinion, no external agencies, organisations or individuals should be allowed to recruit labour from Zimbabwe, whether directly or indirectly.
Q: As HR practitioners, one of your important roles is to ensure harmony at the workplace. Unfortunately, currently there is a lot of disgruntlement as people’s wages are being eroded by inflation. What can be done to motivate employees to ensure more productivity and the turning around of the country’s economic fortunes?
A: Employment agencies must take up a social responsibility role of educating the working community on how to manage remuneration policies under unstable economic environments so that we maintain the survival, profitability and growth of organisations.
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