Stakeholders welcome Act Mr Caleb Mucheche
Mr Caleb Mucheche

Mr Caleb Mucheche

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter—
The signing into law of the Labour Amendment Act will enhance protection of workers from arbitrary dismissals by employers, observers and trade unions said yesterday. President Mugabe assented to the new law on Tuesday after its passage in Parliament last week.

Prominent labour lawyer Mr Caleb Mucheche said the rights of workers had been enhanced. “The case now is that any dismissal has repercussions. The moment a contract has been terminated, employers will now have to compensate. The common law right of employers to dismiss workers has been taken away,” he said.

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Responding to concerns in some sections that the law had given too much power to the minister responsible for labour to interfere with trade unions’ activities, Mr Mucheche said the issue needed to be diligently looked at. According to the new law, the minister may appoint an administrator to a trade union if there are allegations of abuse of funds and can also overrule any collective bargaining agreement reached between employers and their employees if he or she feels that it is in the national interest to do so.

Said Mr Mucheche: “One must look at the issue both ways. There must be some regulation to curb abuses. However, it is also important that in the process of regulating, the regulations should not take away labour rights. So, it must be a measured approach.”He added that it may be premature to condemn the new law.

“This law should be measured by the Constitution. If any right is being taken away, then it can be challenged. What is needed at the moment is not to cry, but to check whether such power (ascribed to the minister) in the Labour Amendment Act is ultra vires the Constitution. I, however, expect that we are likely going to see this law’s constitutionality being tested soon,” he added.

Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions president Mr Alfred Makwarimba welcomed the coming into force of the Act although he expressed reservations on some clauses. “We appreciate what the President has done by signing the Labour (Bill) into law as it curbs the dismissals that we were seeing happening.

“However, we believe the minimum retrenchment package falls short of our expectations. We would have wanted it to be two months’ salary for every year served. The two weeks’ salary for every year served that is in the Act is far too little. “It is, however, one step forward and we hope with continued negotiations, we can improve the Act,” Mr Makwarimba said.

He also expressed reservations with provisions empowering the minister to interfere with operations of trade unions. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary-general Mr Japhet Moyo, however, said they were not happy with the Act. “We are of the view that what we raised before it was signed was going to be incorporated, but unfortunately that was not the case.

“There are issues in the Act that affect our constitutional rights and also provisions of International Labour Organisation statutes, which we have ratified as a country. “If the minister can interfere with trade union activities or veto collective bargaining agreements, that is against ILO conventions,” Mr Moyo said.

Public, Service Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira could not be reached for comment yesterday as she is out of the country on official business. However, she told Parliament last week that the new law had been rushed through to deal with arbitrary sackings of workers and promised that amendments could be made in the future.

The technical committee of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum comprising Government, labour and employer organisations also met on Wednesday to discuss various issues on labour reforms. Last week, the Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe, which is made up of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, the Commercial Farmers’ Union, the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union, the Zimbabwe Council of Tourism, the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union and the Chamber of Mines, condemned the new law saying it would worsen the business environment in the country and was unattractive to both domestic and foreign investors.

The organisation argued that the number of years served should start in 2009 when the country dollarised saying anything before that should be dealt with as liabilities of the Zimbabwe dollar era. They added that when the country dollarised, it lost all its reserves, investments and accrued pensions. The employers are also not happy with the Act under transitional provision in Section 18 that provides for compensation of workers whose contracts of employment were terminated on or before July 17.

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