Posted By Own Staff Thursday, 11 March 2010 01:26

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is lobbying Government to reform the country's labour laws. The labour body has since handed its proposed reform draft to the government ahead of the constitution- making process.

This came in the wake of rampant violation of trade unions and workers rights, by the then ZANU PF government and some sections of the current  government who still revert to the old system that was used by ZANU PF. Speaking at the ZCTU Regional Women Advisory Council (RWAC) legal training and civic education workshop at the ZCTU Bulawayo’s board room, the labour centre’s Western Region Paralegal Officer, Mandla Sibanda said most of the issues that should be included in the Labour Act were not there hence that affected the workers most.However, workers needed to enjoy these rights according to the African and Declaration of Human Rights Charters which Zimbabwe is a signatory to.

Employers were denying them those rights on the grounds that they were not part of Labour Act of Zimbabwe.He said most of the laws made across the world were meant to reflect the mind set of those ruling the countries at that time.

“We at ZCTU have submitted our labour laws reform draft to government as a way of trying to reform them in this transitional period when the other partners in government are still new before they accumulate more wealth that may make them not to allow the reforms in future when they are in the helm.Our intensions are to make the labour laws in the country conform to the International Labour Organisation (ILO)conventions and we want the labour laws here harmonised for both workers in the government and the private sector as civil servants are being regulated separately from other workers across the board,” said Sibanda.

He lamented failure by the Zimbabwean ruling elite to comply with the international charters to which the country was a signatory.He said there were some sections in the labour laws of the country which needed to be scrapped completely as they promoted violation of the workers and human rights.

“The section that says workers have to make a 14-day notice of industrial action to the employers is a big violation of the workers'democratic right. For workers to reach that stage they will have tried all they can to make the employers understand their grievances, but employers fail to comply. Expecting them to give yet another notice is unfair. We are saying that period of notice must be reduced to 48 hours or even 24 hours is enough,” said Sibanda.

He also said there was no secondary strike allowed in the country, meaning that workers were not allowed to act in solidarity with their counterparts who would be having a labour dispute with their employer. He said that regulation prevented the industrial action from making an impact to the employers.

“We therefore want the provisions that will enable workers across the board acting in solidarity to each other on circumstances such as the current civil servants salaries crisis, we must be joining them, for their industrial action to make impact,” he said.

The other section of the labour laws which he said affected workers most was the involvement of the police in the workers issues saying that was   unnecessary. He also said the educational leave issue was also not included in the Labour Act, which means workers were being suppressed by employers when they wanted to take educational leave yet the same employers were demanding high profile curriculum vitaes. He said it was unrealistic and unreasonable for the employers to demand CVs yet they did not want their workers to educationally upgrade themselves.

“Who do they expect to educate the workers they want if they are not prepared to send then to school?” said Sibanda.

He said the ZCTU was lobbying for the inclusion of provisions that would constitutionally allow workers to go on educational leave at the employers’ expense. He said at the moment there were no such provisions.The other issue of concern to the ZCTU is the lack of provisions that provide for sick leave. Sibanda said doctors were the ones who give people leave of which in some cases employers acted contrary to the doctors leave on the grounds that there were no provisions which regulate that status in the Labour Act.

“We are saying the labour laws reforms must include workers being given the provisions which will constitutionally allow them to go for sick leave even before one goes to the doctor,” said Sibanda.

According to ZCTU’s draft several other sections of the labour laws must be scrapped while a number of new provisions must be put in place. Although the ZCTU distanced itself from the current constitution making process, decisions to have some changes being made in the labour laws have been made and the draft has been handed to the government.