THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) yesterday said several companies that have fired workers on three months’ notice were yet to give them their dues in line with the new Labour Act.
By Everson Mushava/XOLISANI NCUBE
President Robert Mugabe assented to the Labour Amendment Bill last week, effectively turning it into an Act of Parliament.
ZCTU secretary-general Japhet Moyo told NewsDay yesterday that his organisation had been following up on companies to see if they had honoured their obligations to pay packages prescribed under the new Labour Act.
“We are monitoring the implementation of the new law to see if those workers who were affected as of July 17 are paid in terms of the new provisions and whether the companies are following the new provisions,” Moyo said.
“To us, nothing has happened. We have been following up on dismissed workers to check if they have been paid.”
In July, the Supreme Court ruled that a company could dismiss workers on three months’ notice without having to pay them other benefits. ZCTU estimates that over 30 000 workers lost their jobs following the ruling.
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Parliament later intervened and railroaded the new Labour Act to curb further job losses.
The new law was applied in retrospect and set tough conditions for companies that were already struggling to stay afloat.
Last week, Zimbabwe’s grain manager, Grain Marketing Board, said it was making efforts to secure $12 million to pay off over 1 200 employees fired following the July 17 Supreme Court ruling.
Meanwhile, labour law expert Rodgers Matsikidze yesterday said the prescribed two weeks’ salary for every year served further exposed workers to unilateral dismissals.
Speaking at a media workshop hosted by the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe, Matsikidze said: “To workers, this is, in my view, a dark cloud with a silver lining because of the following . . . section 4 of the Labour Amendment Act, a close reading of the clause, it’s clear that it’s kind of a reverse legislating whereby the notice itself has not been clearly repealed. It’s still in our law, how? Because it simply says that where termination of notice has occurred, then you are entitled to compensation of two weeks for every year served.” Matsikidze said although the law was “cosmetically crafted to sound as if the workers would go home with something”, it promotes a culture of high labour turnover and breaks loyalty of workers to their employers.
“So the incentive is there for the employers to continue to terminate on notice because they simply need to have money for two weeks’ salary for every year served and a worker is gone,” Matsikidze said.
