The Sunday Mail
After a tumultuous month in which more than 20 000 people reportedly lost their jobs following a Supreme Court ruling allowing employers to fire workers on three-month notices, workers are now counting the possible gains from amendments to the Labour Act.
As the dust settles on the July 17 judgement, workers count their possible gains
The Labour Amendment Bill, which sailed through both the National House of Assembly and Senate, was awaiting Presidential assent to become law at the time of writing.
Amendments to the law seek to reinstate severance payments and restrictions on sackings. The gazetted amendments abolished the common law right of the employer to terminate a contract on notice, but enact a redundancy pay cap of two weeks’ salary for every year worked. As the dust finally settles, workers are anxious to know what has been accomplished by the amendments to the Bill.
On the other hand, employers are still adamant that the amendments to the Labour Act will bring more harm than good to the economy. The Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe distanced itself from the amendments, which it says leave the country less attractive to capital than it was before.
“The Government, business and labour have been engaged in labour law reform discussions for the past five years for the purpose of making the country, Zimbabwe, more attractive to investors (both domestic and foreign) for the socio-economic development of Zimbabwe. The outcome, House Bill 7 of 2015, leaves the country even less attractive than it was before.”
Questions have been asked about the Bill’s ability to protect the interests of both workers and employers. Mr Takunda Mugaga, CEO of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, said under the prevailing economic conditions, companies are not capable of fairly compensating the dismissed workers.
“It is impossible to expect fair compensation under the current economic conditions. The market is shrinking. Save for the banking sector where bank executives can eat into depositors’ funds, all the other sectors are struggling. In terms of asking for fair compensation, I think it is asking for too much,” Mr Mugaga said.
He said the wave of job losses has more to do with the economic situation.
“Our economy is shrinking and there is over-protection of workers. The current Labour Bill will scuttle investment. Government should look at both the workers and employers’ situations before coming up with such laws. The Bill will chase away investors as it protects workers more than employers.”
Mr Mugaga argued that there would be more company closures before year-end. Harare West legislator, Ms Jessie Majome, who referred to the mass sackings as a “genocide of jobs”, claimed amendments to the Labour Act were a result of “bad politics”.
“The Labour Reform Bill is a bad law in terms of substance and the way it was crafted. We are rushing to Parliament to make laws whilst ignoring the root of the problem – the economy which is in distress,” said Ms Majome, who is chairperson of the Parliamentary Legal Committee. But constitutional lawyer Professor Lovemore Madhuku said the Supreme Court ruling was an eye-opener and workers would benefit from the Bill. Mr Clemence Vusani, director of Labour Administration in the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Ministry, said both workers and employers stood to gain from the amendments.
There are concerns on the side of workers that payment of one month’s salary for every two years served as a retrenchment package was too little by way of compensation. And there is also much debate about a clause allowing the law to be applied in retrospect to July 17, 2015 when the bloodletting in the labour sector started.
