Zim govt complies with ILO
By Own Correspondent
Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Prisca Mupfumira
Alois Vinga
GOVERNMENT is taking steps to comply with an International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommendation to align the country’s Labour Amendment Act, which was created to protect workers from wholesale dismissals, with ILO standards, the Financial Gazette’s Companies & Markets has established.
In March this year, ILO’s Committee of Experts produced a detailed report which recommended that government should repeal sections of the Labour Act which were not consistent with ILO conventions.
The following month, ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association (CFA) expressed concern at government’s refusal to register two trade unions, saying this undermined the rights of workers.
Highly placed sources said that the Tripartite Negotiation Forum (TNF), which consists of representatives from government, labour and business, convened to discuss 13 principles in the Labour Act which were condemned by the ILO.
The meeting agreed to comply with the ILO recommendations and government was already in the process of making the necessary adjustments to the law, a source said.
Two trade unions, the Zimbabwe Footwear Tanners and Allied Workers’ Union (ZFTAWU) and the National Union of Metal and Allied Industries of Zimbabwe (NUMAIZ), which had been denied registration, could now soon receive their operating licenses.
Notably, TNF members left the country for the 105th ILO conference in Geneva which started on May 30 and will end tomorrow.
Some critics have said had moved to hurriedly comply with the ILO recommendations to avoid censure at the ILO conference.
A draft document outlining the deliberations between government, business and labour indicates that a number of strides have been made to harmonise the Labour Act with the ILO convention.
The TNF partners agreed that the new labour dispute settlement system, ushered in by the Labour Act, created serious bottlenecks to the dispute settlement system to the extent that labour cases were already piling up without resolution.
For an efficient, easy and improved dispute settlement system, the parties agreed to repeal section 16 of the Labour Act, which created the new dispute settlement system, and revert back to the old dispute resolution system.
They agreed to review section 93 of the Act to cover the powers, roles and jurisdiction of the conciliators, designated agents and labour officers.
This would also include the provision to protect the independence of the conciliator and to give the Labour Court jurisdiction over all labour matters.
Social partners also agreed to provide for the appointment of members to the National Employment Councils (NEC) board, drawn from registered employers, and workers’ organisations through proportional representation of their membership.
They also agreed that the registrar would determine the minimum requirements for admission into NECs.
According to the documents, this is intended to curtail multiplicity of unions the employers can negotiate with. A source said that parties had not reached consensus on some issues.
The matter of streamlining retrenchment procedures could not be agreed on because business could not agree with the deletion of section 5 (3) (b) which provides for the paying of a fortnight’s minimum retrenchment package.
The parties could not reach consensus on including family needs in collective bargaining agreements (CBA).
Business’ position is that factors such as “needs of workers and their families” are issues not linked to productivity and also not directly linked to business, while labour maintained that these were necessary workers’ rights.
The source also said that the parties could not find common ground on the need to eradicate barriers on notifying the police when staging demonstrations.
The other area of disagreement emanated from the right to maternity protection.
This requires the amendment of section 18 of the Labour Act to remove qualifying period, prescribed intervals for maternity and the maximum number of times for enjoying maternity leave.
Labour is of the view that this right already exists in the Constitution therefore should be provided for in the Labour Act without any conditions.
Employers’ position is that legislation of this nature, without first establishing the maternity scheme under National Social Security Authority (NSSA), would lead to an unsustainable financial burden on business.
Government’s position is for a balanced approach in order to avoid unintended effects such as discrimination against female employees of child bearing age.
On education, no consensus was reached because the business fraternity proposed that collective bargaining of educational leave should be left at enterprise level and paid educational leave should be determined by employers and linked to the employees’ aresa of responsibility and career development.
It is understood that the partners could not agree on the issue of fixed term contracts.
The Labour Amendment Act now provides that a fixed term contract shall be deemed to be a contract of employment without limit of time upon the expiry of such a period of continuous service to be fixed by respective NECs or the Minister where an employment council does not exist.
Business’ position on the matter is that this provision takes away labour market flexibility, which is necessary for competitiveness and sustainability. They also believe that the provision also presents difficulties in managing employment contract in situations where work is not of a permanent nature such as during construction projects and non-governmental programmes.
ZCTU secretary general, Japhet Moyo, acknowledged that a few positive strides had been made but said there were still a few issues still outstanding.
“As labour we are disappointed because government appears to be concerned every year when we approach the ILO conference. This zeal unfortunately dies a natural death soon after the ILO conference. What we acknowledge in terms of progress is that government has agreed to register trade unions whose applications were previously turned down.The remaining issues might be few but they are very important and need to be looked into,” Moyo said.
Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Prisca Mupfumira, said government was committed to the labour law reform process.
She said progress made so far demonstrated government’s commitment to reform the country’s labour law to comply with ILO conventions.
Mupfumira said 10 out of 13 principles had been agreed on and that representatives from labour and business had been given until June 30 to finalise the remaining principles.
Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe executive director, John Mufukare, said that while there were grey areas that needed to be dealt with, the engagement by TNF principals was so far progressive.
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