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Zimbabwe not yet off the hook: ZCTU

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ZIMBABWE might have been removed from the agenda of the 2017 International Labour Conference (ILC), but it risks being brought back on the list if it does not comply with the recommendations of the 2016 High Level Mission (HLM).

ZIMBABWE might have been removed from the agenda of the 2017 International Labour Conference (ILC), but it risks being brought back on the list if it does not comply with the recommendations of the 2016 High Level Mission (HLM).

by CHRIS MAHOVE

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary-general Japhet Moyo said from Brussels, Belgium, where he is attending the 206th Session of the ILC that government had no political will to implement the roadmap they had put forward to the HLM.

The roadmap was agreed to at the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) meeting held in Harare last month, just two weeks before the ILC.

Moyo said the de-listing of Zimbabwe had been on the basis that the government be given a chance to implement the recommendations, adding the decision was a result of both reason and politics.

“However, knowing our government and despite the fact there is an agreed road map on implementation of the recommendations, come next year it may still find itself on the short-list. So it is a matter of giving the government a long rope,” he said.

Moyo, however, said the labour body’s view had been that the current matter was different from that of last year, which was based on Conventions 87 and 98 on the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise and Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining respectively.

He said this year’s listing was based on Convention 105 on Abolition of Forced Labour, which had been observed by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, which cited various pieces of legislation which exposed workers to forced prison labour.

“For example, the Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act infringe on workers’ rights to demonstrate and express their political views and if arrested, they may be used as forced prison labour for an issue which emanated from a workplace,” Moyo said.

He also cited the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act which he said criminalised trivial issues such as saying statements deemed to denigrate the president, noting that the sections had a wide scope which put workers at risk of arrest for utterances made at labour forums.

“As can be deduced, this is an important topic and we will push the government to amend these laws and align them with the Constitution. Our legal team had more than 400 cases handled by our courts based on these repressive legislations and in most cases, the victims won and nothing was done to the perpetrators,” Moyo said.

The ZCTU boss said the ball was now in government’s court, adding the labour body would spend the next 11 months pushing for the necessary amendments and alignment.

“If that fails, we will definitely push the matter back on next year’s ILC‘s Committee on Application of Standards agenda,” he said.