THE Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) has urged enterprises to strengthen workplace governance and legal risk management systems in response to evolving regulatory requirements.
The call by Emcoz comes at a time when compliance pressure is already rising across the formal economy.
Recent government data shows that authorities conducted over 5 000 workplace inspections nationally in 2025, covering sectors such as mining, manufacturing, and services, as they seek to intensify enforcement of labour and occupational safety laws.
Further, under the current National Development Strategy 2 economic blueprint, labour and employment-related legislative and policy instruments will undergo a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder review, strategic alignment, and rigorous enforcement.
According to the government, this is expected to enhance inclusive and sustainable employment opportunities. The objective is to ensure institutional coherence, eliminate outdated provisions, and harmonise laws with international labour standards.
“In line with the recent and rapidly evolving legal regulatory framework, which places heightened compliance responsibilities on employers and human resources practitioners, enterprises must strengthen workplace governance management systems, disciplinary procedures, documentation standards and legal risk management frameworks,” Emcoz director Nester Mukwehwa said at a recent business indaba.
She emphasised the importance of proactive labour relations in reducing disputes and ensuring business continuity.
“Proactive labour relations management is essential to minimise litigation exposure, safeguard enterprise continuity, promote workplace harmony, and enhance productivity,” Mukwehwa said.
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“We firmly believe that balanced labour regulation — one that protects workers’ rights while safeguarding enterprise sustainability — is indispensable for investment confidence, productivity, growth and employment creation.”
She added that stakeholder engagement, transparent operational guidelines, and simplified digital compliance systems are critical to unlocking the full potential of Zimbabwe’s private sector.
However, structural challenges remain, including high utility tariffs, rising logistics costs, infrastructure deficits, limited access to long-term financing, and an unreliable energy supply.
These are some of the reasons why several corporations instituted widespread retrenchments last year as a cost-cutting measure, which also included senior managerial posts.
“Addressing these constraints through coordinated reforms, infrastructure investments and innovative financial mechanisms remains vital to unlock the full potential of Zimbabwe’s private sector,” Mukwehwa said.
“We therefore strongly advocate for continuous stakeholder engagement, transparent operational guidelines, efficient, refined mechanisms and simplified digital compliance systems, ensuring that taxation does not undermine digital transformation, innovation and enterprise competitiveness.”
Government statistics show that Zimbabwe’s formal unemployment rate stood at about 20,7% in the second quarter of 2025, a level still considered high for an economy targeting upper-middle-income status.
This reflects persistent pressure on the formal sector to absorb job seekers in an environment where structured employment opportunities remain limited.
At the same time, the dominance of informal activity continues to shape the labour landscape.
The 2025 Second Quarter Labour Force Survey indicates that about 65% of all employed persons are engaged in informal work, underscoring how most economic activity now occurs outside formal corporate structures.
This imbalance is increasing the burden on registered enterprises, which must comply with tightening governance and regulatory frameworks while operating in a labour market that is both fragmented and heavily informalised.
“We don’t manufacture. So, it means that for inflation, if there is inflation elsewhere, we import it. There are also natural risks, repeated expansion, fiscal slippage; we import to contain fiscal slippage,” University of Zimbabwe Business School director Albert Makochekanwa said.
“Sometimes, we plan one or two strategies to contain, but then, with the issue of policy consequences, we forget to implement what we’ve said. Then, it becomes expectations and credibility risks.”
He said emerging inflation risks despite stabilisation efforts and exposure to global financial volatility point to transitional structural challenges, which is why constant policy monitoring is needed.
