The Sunday Mail
Howdy folks!
So it is again — Workers’ Day!
And the struggle for decent working conditions continues. If we are to take stock of where we are right now, just where should we start from?
Perhaps we may have to start from what matters most — 54 workers lost their lives at workplaces last year, an average of one worker dying every week.
And 5,380 were injured, an average of 15 workers being injured per day.
Some part with permanent injuries and are unable to work again.
These are just the reported cases we are talking about.
And in a highly informalised economy such as ours, where only six percent of workers are employed in the formal sector, chances are that the numbers could be much higher.
Reported incidents often come from the formal sector.
We should talk workers’ safety on this momentous day.
Zimbabwe’s working environments are just unsafe and unhealthy, as the National Social Security Authority has proven year-in year-out through its Lost Time Injury Frequency Rates.
It appears as if we are fine with it; that workers can be exposed to terrible environments as long as profits are being made and salaries are being paid.
This can only be the perfect explanation why only 18 percent of local companies have occupational, safety and health (OSH) policies.
The rest do not. Yet, every employer is required by legislation to provide a safe and healthy working environment, while also fostering that the work process does not affect the safety and health of workers.
The consequences of the status quo are certain — 88 percent of accidents at the workplace are attributable to human error, as Nssa says.
Because there are no concrete OSH policies in place, human errors are inclined to happen.
Government should, therefore, step up its efforts to ensure the safety of workers is safeguarded at the workplace.
Workers can only be productive in environments where they feel safe; that is when they can only do their best. So, employers who do not have OSH policies are in a way shooting themselves in the foot.
It boggles the mind why some employers complain that labour in Zimbabwe is not productive, but pay no attention to the fundamental imperatives.
The other reason, of course, is that due to the high informalisation of the economy, many Museyamwa’s who arise don’t submit their returns to Nssa.
They always play cat-and-mouse with Nssa, and do not even have guidelines on establishing OSH policies.
And worse still, they are not part of the Worker’s Compensation and Accident Prevention Scheme.
More than five million workers are not registered with Nssa, meaning the majority of them do not have social security.
If we do not reflect on these realities on a day like this, then we will be showing lack of seriousness about the lives of workers.
Last Thursday, it was the United Nations World Day for Safety and Health at Work, and this year’s theme was: Workplace Stress — a collective challenge.
In coming up with this theme, the United Nations noted that many workers are facing greater pressure to meet the demands of modern working life.
“Psycho-social risks such as increased competition, higher expectations on performance and longer working hours are contributing to the workplace becoming an ever more stressful environment,” it noted.
Zimbabwean workers are not immune to stress at the workplace, folks.
And this has been proven in a paper by Industrial Psychology Consultants titled “Distress and other Mental Health Problems in the Zimbabwean Working Population”.
The study established that 43 percent of working Zimbabweans experience symptoms of distress.
It also says 27,2 percent of the working population is depressed to the extent of “feeling that things are meaningless, and they can’t see a way of escaping from their situation, life is not worthwhile, they would be better if they were dead, they can’t enjoy anything anymore, wishing they were dead”.
And there is always a cost aspect to it.
Based on the study results, it is estimated that companies are losing over US$107, 520,000 per year in wages and productivity through mental health or stress-related absence from work.
Again, this is something we have to deal with.
A combination of unhealthy, unsafe environments and stress is surely a recipe for disaster.
We always ask why Zimbabweans are unproductive when they are educated and very literate, and yet these are the issues we neglect when we ask that question.
As long as an employee is hard-pressed — left, right and centre — by all these adversities, the employer will always have to pay the price at some point.
The worker is, however, not a saint in all this.
We have some who just get in their offices to tuck their jackets behind their chairs, then leave as if the jacket will do the work for them.
And when month-end comes, they get their full salary. In other words, the pay they get is not proportional to the quantum of work they put in.
And that is unfair.
We all have to reap what we sow, otherwise we will be promoting laziness. Labour is hired to be productive, folks!
Even in that Biblical parable of talents, don’t we learn what happened to the servant who was given one talent and chose to bury it underground?
The master instructed his aides: “Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25vs30)
We should start to measure tasks at our respective workplaces, and have workers rewarded according to what they have achieved, not according to the time one’s jacket stays on their chairs.
The workplace is not an environment for miracle money.
Workers must be accountable for their productivity, if Zimbabwe is to progress.
Again, on a day like this, we should seriously be provoked to think about the desperate unemployment situation in our country. An unemployment rate of 90 percent or 11 percent, depending on your definition and methodology, is surely not sustainable for a country such as ours; with the highest natural resources per capita index in the whole world.
It now appears as if it’s a curse to be heavily endowed with natural resources in Africa, as countries that are prospering are the ones that do not have natural resources!
Zimbabwe needs robust strategies on how to effectively utilise its natural resources to create employment for its people, especially the youths who are daily bearing the brunt of the sting of joblessness.
There is also need to reverse the perennial de-industrialisation that has been taking place since 2011.
With the existing infrastructure in the manufacturing sector, we can actually create more jobs if we were to increase capacity to 100 percent — before we even think about creating new companies.
The manufacturing sector employs about 250,000 workers at 34 percent capacity utilisation.
If that capacity is increased to 100 percent, then about 600,000 additional jobs will be created.
This is why I implore Government, through the Industry and Commerce Ministry, to come up with a practical industry policy, when the current one completes its course this year.
As we commemorate Workers’ Day, may it also be an opportunity for us to seriously ponder on the issues affecting workers in Zimbabwe.
Shinga mushandi shinga!
Later folks!
