The Sunday News
Mesabe Ncube
WORKERS unions and human resources personnel have been urged to change their approach to collective bargaining and desist from negotiating for unsustainable packages so as to allow organisational growth.
Speaking at the Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe’s labour briefing last Friday, Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe director Dr Godfrey Kanyenze said unions must realise that the country was going through massive structural changes and realignment which had implications for employment and collective bargaining.
“Structural change is the most effective driver of growth to bring down rates of vulnerable employment in developing economies, both in the short and long run,” he said.
Dr Kanyenze said external factors like inflation and poverty datum line must push for a favourable and sustainable outcome that is consistent with internal factors like productivity, profitability and rate of return on investment.
He said collective bargaining agreements must also be in line with the economic environment at any given moment.
“You can negotiate for a good package but it will be useless if it cannot be supported by the conditions of the prevailing economic environment,” he stressed.
Warning workers unions against becoming labour aristocracies, Dr Kanyenze said unions should realise that the country’s economy has shifted in such a manner that the majority of the workforce was informalised leaving a greater part of labour force unregulated.
Though he indicated that the unit labour costs in Zimbabwe were not as high as in other countries, he also said there was still a need to grow business before milking them dry through unsustainable collective bargaining agreements.
“Unions need to start changing their mindsets and stop fighting over a diminishing cake instead of growing it,” he said.
Dr Kanyenze said the country’s minimal involvement in exporting was the biggest challenge to the economy.
“Having a few companies exporting means the country is depending much on the local market which is already distressed,” he said.
Other factors mentioned as affecting economic growth include lack of access to global funding after the International Monetary Fund shut its doors to Zimbabwe in 2009 for failing to honour its debt, hence without access to global funding the country is operating in an abnormal environment.
“We also cannot use the deficit financing because we no longer have our own currency, meaning we are now operating in an abnormal environment,” he said.
He also said fluctuations in the economy were causing collective bargaining processes to be delayed as they do not give a secure picture of the economic future hence the need to start focusing on job creation and productivity in order to secure the future.
“The proportion of workers in the formal sector is now below 50 percent so it would be ridiculous to start arguing about the right to fire or hire when we actually don’t have any employment to talk about,” he said.
However, he indicated that the country was moving towards creating a degree of economic stability which is critical for development.
Meanwhile, Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa in his 2015 budget indicated that the Remuneration Policy Framework for State Enterprises, Parastatals and Local Authorities to address remuneration anomalies was being finalised.
“Already, Mr Speaker Sir, the Auditor-General was engaged to carry out audits whose outcome will inform on the appropriate remedial measures to be instituted to establish remuneration levels of management, as well as Board members,” said Minister Chinamasa.
