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Tripartite partners should work as one

Opinion & Analysis
The Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe this week predictably filed a court order challenging the Labour Amendment Act.

The Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe this week predictably filed a court order challenging the Labour Amendment Act.

NewsDay Comment

Without seeming to take sides with employers, the Act was passed with glaring shortcomings and this legal challenge has been coming since the law was gazetted.

We understand that the government was trying to plug a very big legal hole when the Labour Amendment Act was signed, but in its haste it forgot to cover the basics making this challenge almost inevitable.

With thousands of workers losing their jobs in the wake of the landmark July 17 Supreme Court ruling that allowed employers to terminate workers’ contracts on three months’ notice, the government was hard-pressed to come up with a law to stop job losses.

But we believe they went about it the wrong way, as it was likely to cause problems for both employers and employees.

Right from the Act’s inception, the Parliamentary Legal Committee (PLC) raised flags on some aspects of the Act, but these were thrown out in the name of crass populism.

Some opposition parliamentarians also opposed some aspects of the Act, but they are in the minority and were duly silenced by the majority.

This is yet another example of our leaders failing to have foresight and only looking at short-term benefits of their actions.

If parliamentarians had any vision, they would have thrashed out the issues raised by the PLC and by this they would have avoided this unnecessary and costly lawsuit.

In their haste to pass the law, both workers and employers are unhappy and we wonder why Parliament rushed to make the amendment.

There are some sections that are happy with the new law, but as it is, job security is not guaranteed for most workers, as they could lose their jobs at three months’ notice, even without doing anything wrong.

On the other hand, employers are unhappy because even workers with chequered disciplinary records are also afforded the three months’ notice period and a retrenchment package, no matter the transgressions leading to their being fired.

These are just the rudimentary issues, but employers and a good number of lawyers have also cited the retrospective issue of paying severance packages for workers that lost their jobs between July 17 and when the Labour Amendment Act was passed.

Companies are being forced into retrenchments not because employers want to line their pockets, but because most face viability problems and this is the only way they can stay afloat.

To avoid such unneeded standoffs in future, we advise the government to make full use of platforms such as the Tri-partite Negotiating Forum, where labour, the government and employers can agree on fundamental aspects of the economy without posturing and seeking to outdo each other.

For the economy to make any gains, these three arms — labour, government and employers — have to be in sync and in agreement on all aspects.

Individualism and mistrust, among these three, are unhelpful and should be seen as anathema.

What is needed now is an all-encompassing approach and a collective approach to dealing with the economy.

We hope this lawsuit will serve as a wake-up call to all stakeholders on the need to work together.