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Abandon ambush tactics for social dialogue

28 May, 2023 - 00:05 0 Views
Abandon ambush tactics for social dialogue Prices have continued to sky rocket while most shops, including the big supermarkets, are now demanding payment strictly in United States dollars, even for items such as burgers

The Sunday Mail

Editor’s Brief

Victoria Ruzvidzo

IN his instalment last week, President Mnangagwa lamented the deceptive and back-stabbing stance adopted by business in recent weeks, leading to the current instability in terms of prices and the foreign currency market. He was spot on.

We are still lights out regarding the cause of the highly inflationary pressures obtaining in the market. Some businesses have pleaded not guilty but the trembling and stammering in their voice is suspicious.

Prices have continued to sky rocket while most shops, including the big supermarkets, are now demanding payment strictly in United States dollars, even for items such as burgers. Items still priced in the local currency are nowhere to be seen on the shelves. All we see are price tags and a few crumbs as evidence that they sold bread at some point in the past. Other shops do convert the US dollar price at the till point using the black market rate, which becomes one and the same.

Business has crafted ways and means to dodge the system on the market, emerging the winner presently, albeit temporarily. The current instability will obviously come back to haunt them, if this has not already started.

“As never before, my Government has pursued pro-business policies, including holding regular consultative meetings with businesses, especially in the early days of the Second Republic. The spirit remains that of ensuring that Government, Business and Labour work together in concert and harmony, in the spirit of tripartism. As I write, most policies shaping our business environment are a crystallisation of recommendations from Business, which my Government embraced in a spirit of trust and partnership.

“Partly to support Business and partly to offset the negative effects of Covid-19 global pandemic, and subsequent worldwide disruption of supply chains, we introduced the Foreign Currency Auction System, again as a recommendation from Business. The weekly forex auction system has largely held, thus facilitated price discovery and equitable access to this much-needed resource for Business. Today, our exchange rate is determined from this auction system, and not arbitrarily as before,” said President Mnangagwa in his column last week.

These are just a few examples of deliberate efforts by Government to rescue business.

The obtaining situation is not helpful to anyone and flies in the face of these strategies by Government to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. The economy has largely been stable and has become the darling, even of the previously die-hard critics. But now there is clear and present danger that things may get worse if the forces at play are not tamed.

Prior to all this, Government and business have been holding meetings regularly while the former has consulted the latter when crafting strategies to get the economy on track. There is even the Presidential Advisory Council created to provide a platform for active dialogue. What has happened to all this?

We commend the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce for the revolutionary stance it has taken against some of its peers. Its president Christopher Mugaga is quoted elsewhere in this paper saying it will disassociate itself from such indiscipline.

“This is where the word sabotage perfectly fits in. I cannot imagine a wholesaler or retailer building a fiefdom of shadow agents to push their products into the black market just in the name of refusing the Zimbabwe dollar.

“As a chamber of commerce, we distance ourselves from such retailers, even if one of them is caught to be our member. We are not afraid to disown them, he said.

This is the boldness we expect from the business leadership. It must not be mere cosmetics either.

Indeed, the shenanigans in the economy highlight the need for a binding social contract to which all parties sign up. Such a social contract puts expectations and responsibilities on the parties involved, with no room for midnight manoeuvres that violate agreements. Zimbabwe needs this.

The Tripartite Negotiation Forum was such a body created in the early 2000s for this purpose and it subsisted for some years. It appears to have fallen off the face of the earth. It can be resuscitated.

It helped keep things in check among Government, business and labour and would resolve issues before they got offhand. Tolerance and compromise were the operative words, all for this country’s greater good. National interest was of primary concern.

According to Techtarget, “a social contract is an agreement, either implicit or explicit, governing the behaviour of individuals and organisations within a certain context such as a workplace, a culture, a nation or a social media site.

“The purpose of the social contract is serving the common or greater good to ensure the sustainability of the system in question and to protect the individuals within it. As such, the social contract generally guides moral behaviour. According to our implicit agreement, for example, it is wrong to perform acts that harm others such as stealing, cheating, assaulting or bearing false witness.”

Such a strategy is critical in maintaining order and the stability this economy needs.

In a study commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung a few years ago, economist Professor Gift Mugano revealed that the social contract or social dialogue was an effective instrument that kept parties to the agreement together in most of the countries where the concept was adopted.

“Social dialogue is a well-established instrument which has gained traction, especially amongst developed countries, and its use is being explored to deal with an array of national challenges, particularly in developing and fragile states. Social dialogue is enshrined in the ILO’s Declaration of Philadelphia (1944), which states: ‘The war against want requires to be carried on with unrelenting vigour within each nation, and by continuous and concerted international effort in which the representatives of workers and employers, enjoying equal status with those of governments, join with them in free discussion and democratic decision with a view to the promotion of the common welfare.’

“In this regard, social dialogue is an active decision by the nations of the world to use it to tackle economic and social challenges flowing from crises to ensure lasting peace and sustainable prosperity for everyone. The ILO defines social dialogue (or social concertation) as: ‘All types of negotiation, consultation or information sharing among representatives of governments, employers and workers or between those of employers and workers on issues of common interest relating to economic and social policy’ (ILO, 2013a),” he says.

He posits that this strategy has three main components, which are information exchange, consultation, negotiation and dispute resolution. The most basic process of social dialogue is exchange of information, which is an important precondition for its more substantive forms. Consultation is not only a means through which social partners share information, but is also the mechanism to engage in dialogue on pertinent issues. Typically, all forms of social dialogue are either informal and ad hoc, or formal and institutionalised. However, in actual practice, social dialogue often involves a combination of both informal and formal mechanisms.

Business, as is largely expected of it, needs not employ ambush tactics but should approach Government in a more amicable, harmonious and progressive manner. On its part, Government needs to be accommodative and receptive to ideas and proposals by business as is already the case. Of course, there is room for improvement.

Stability in the economy needs to be induced sooner rather than later. Most fundamentals have been pointing towards significant growth this year.

Inflation has been declining while investment, employment and wealth creation across the economy have been on a positive trajectory. Let us put a stop to any disturbance in this regard. The situation is still redeemable.

In God I Trust!

Twitter handle: @VictoriaRuzvid2; Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; WhatsApp number: 0772 129 972.

 

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