THE LABOUR ACT
The perennial labour issues that seem to cause employers difficulty are in the areas of contract employment, sick leave, vacation leave, overtime on public holidays and disciplining illegal strikers.
CONTRACT EMPLOYMENT (Section 12)
Trade Unions seem to be advising employers that contractual employment is no longer possible and alleging, when the contractual employee is terminated, that retrenchment package is payable “as he was permanent”.
It is, with due respect to the Trade Union movement, not correct to make such an assertion. The Act in no way restricts contractual employment. Nor does the Act restrict the number of contracts that an employer can place an employee.
SICK LEAVE (Section 14)
Sick leave is granted up to a maximum of 90 calendar days per annum on full pay and 90 calendar days per annum on half pay. Sick leave runs on a calendar year basis and is not accruable. Any sick leave over 2 days will require a medical certificate from an SRN or a Doctor booking you off work. The certificate must indicate the nature of the problem and the expected duration. The employer reserves the right to have you medically examined by a Doctor of its choice, if there is evidence of abuse of the sick leave facility. Any period of absence requiring a medical certificate, for which you cannot provide a certificate, shall be considered absence without a reasonable excuse, for which you may be disciplined. Once your sick leave has been exhausted, if you are still unable to attend work, the employer shall make an application for permission to discharge you on grounds of ill health and will be placed on unpaid sick leave pending final decision on termination.
VACTION LEAVE (Section 14A)
The minimum provision of leave as it appears in the Act is 30 calendar days, not working days. If you want to use working days, this equates to 22 working days for those employees on a 5-day working week and 26 for those on a 6-day working week.
OVERTIME FOR WORKING ON PUBLIC HOLIDAYS (Section 14C (3)
Any employee, worker or manager who works on a public holiday is entitled to be paid overtime. This is so irrespective of what the relevant CBA may say and of the fact that in the past managerial staff did not get overtime for working on public holidays. Note that where an employee is paid monthly implying that he is normally paid for Public Holidays when he is off duty the rate of overtime payable would be twice the normal hourly rate for his level of pay in addition to the pay for that day already included in his monthly remuneration.
Note that this only applies to public holidays. Section 14C does not refer to other overtime situations such as working on a day off (weekend, say) or working more than the usual working hours during the week. Managerial employees would not normally be paid overtime for such situations, since it is part of a manager’s normal conditions that he may be required on occasion to work longer than those laid down in his contract.
WAGES FOR AGRICULTURE
GENERAL AGRIC
The above sector is still at 32.00 per month since May 2009.
AGRO/HORTICULTURE SECTOR
These sectors wages were determined by the arbitrator for the period of May 2009 to November 2009. The minimum wage is US 50.00 per month.
TIMBER SECTOR
Timber sector wages were also determined by the arbitrator and the minimum wages for the period of May to August 2009 are as follows;-
MAY 2009 US 50.00
JUNE 2009 US 55.00
JULY 2009 US 70.00
AUGUST 2009 US 75
Many Thanks
Tongai Marodza