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Minister Goche

Peter Matambanadzo recently in VICTORIA FALLS
Government is working on establishing the Zimbabwe National Productivity Institute, an industrial relations framework that seeks to deal with collective bargaining, workers remuneration as well as enterprise capacity and sustainability.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche said this was part of the labour law reforms being undertaken by Government.
The reforms seek to realign labour laws with the new Constitution as well as International Labour Organisation Conventions.

In his key note address at the Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe annual convention on Friday, Minister Goche noted that the reforms were also in line with the broad developmental objectives of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.

“To support this labour law reform thrust are concurrent measures to make the Zimbabwe National Productivity Institute operational without delay,” Minister Goche said.

He said the institute can play a major role in supporting an industrial relations framework that is informed by a properly defined objective productivity and competitiveness benchmark.

“The institute would thus serve to make the process of collective bargaining as provided for under the Labour Act meaningful, serving to better co-relate workers remuneration with enterprise capacity and sustainability,” he said.

Minister Goche said although there were significant funding needs for setting up the institute, Government was seriously and urgently looking at how to operationalise it.

He said the thrust of the ongoing labour law reforms process was to achieve the broad developmental objectives as elaborated in the ZimAsset.
Minister Goche said the ZimAsset objectives were anchored on indigenisation, empowerment and employment creation with an explicit target of 2,2 million new jobs by 2018.

The minister said as the country moves ahead with labour law reforms it should be expectation of both business and labour that some costs will be suffered across the board just as benefits should be for all.

He said Government, business as well as labour should be prepared to share the transformation burden for the nation.
“The standpoint of labour law making should be based on an understanding that the fate of employers and workers is similar. No one side can perpetually profit at the expense of the other,” he said.

He said the ZimAsset objectives were accordingly the standpoint for the review of labour laws.