The Sunday News
THE Attorney General’s office has finalised the drafting of a preliminary Labour Amendment Bill which is now under consideration from stakeholders as Government moves in to stop wanton retrenchments that companies have embarked on following a recent Supreme Court Judgement.
Various companies have sent thousands of workers into the streets one week after a Supreme Court ruling that gave firms the power to terminate contracts of employment upon issuing three months’ notice without offering an explanation or following the retrenchment route.
Addressing delegates attending the Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe (IPMZ) annual convention in Victoria Falls on Wednesday, Acting Principal Director in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Mrs Grace Maramba said the preliminary bill was under consideration from a technical committee of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum.
She said Government wanted to see retrenchments as a business turnaround strategy for reviving enterprises and improving business viability and not as a way of fixing employees.
“Retrenchment processes should be clear cut and uncomplicated with the ideal of restoring companies to competitive positions and should be undertaken when absolutely necessary, under equitable and justifiable grounds where the resulting hardship is shared between management and other workers,” Mrs Maramba said.
Some of the amendments to the labour law would include a framework for collective bargaining that adds other issues such as productivity levels, competitiveness and business sustainability, she said.
The pronouncement come after Government also indicated that it was expeditiously moving to amend the Labour Act to stop company retrenchments.
Companies that fired workers over the last week include Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (11), CFI Holdings (100), Highveld Seeds (21), Mike Appel (25), Farm and City (50), Zimasco (648). Other companies like Econet, Aviation Ground Services and several other companies have also retrenched an unspecified number of workers.
Mrs Maramba also added that school leavers and graduates were that the hardest hit cluster in the labour market as on top of threats of retrenchment they were also made to settle for economic activities that were not able to lift households out of poverty as the economy continues to grapple with low production levels.
Many companies are struggling with the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries estimating that capacity utilisation might end the year at 29 percent from last year’ figures of 36,3 percent.
“Those in the formal economy find themselves working under precarious conditions characterised by casualisation, under payment and even nonpayment of wages while workers in the informal economy lack adequate labour protection,” said Mrs Maramba.
She said it was necessary to come up with innovative solutions as labour market stability, innovation and cooperation among players was the most feasible route out of the situation the country is in.
“Our current situation calls for a paradigm shift from the business as usual approach to a more practical and aggressive way of addressing challenges,” she said.
Mrs Maramba said was underway to revive the establishment of the Zimbabwe National Productivity Institute (ZNPI) which according to government is an anticipated centre of excellence that will raise national productivity through stimulating productivity consciousness in all sectors of the economy.
The IPMZ annual convention was held under the theme Human Resource as a catalyst for sustainable competitive advantage.
