THE government has signalled that it is reviewing the country’s labour laws and one of the major proposed contentious reforms would make it easier for employers to hire and fire workers.
It has often been argued that one of the reasons Zimbabwe’s economy is not competitive is that its labour market is restrictive. The laws make it costly for employers to hire without due care and there is an emphasis on adherence to a minimum wage.
Investors argue that it is cheaper to set up shop in neighbouring countries instead of Zimbabwe where labour is expensive.
Therefore, the government appears to have listened to the lobby by business to introduce productivity-linked wages.
The government’s stance has angered labour unions who criticised the move towards productivity-linked wages at Workers’ Day commemorations held throughout the country yesterday.
George Nkiwane, the president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, has indicated that they favour the status quo where wages are linked to the poverty datum line, estimated at $500.
The argument makes sense because the Zimbabwean economy is currently very unstable with a lot of structural problems.
The cost of living is generally high because the country heavily relies on imports because of the collapse of local industry.
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However, employers also argue that productivity-linked wages would help companies to remain afloat.
The divergent views point to an urgent need for dialogue between labour, the government and the workers.
A forum such as the Tripatite Negotiating Forum (TNF) would be ideal to help the parties find each other.
TNF is a social dialogue platform that brings labour, the government and business to negotiate key economic policies, which has been redundant for a long time.
The government has the responsibility to reactivate the platform especially at this crucial time when it is planning wide ranging labour reforms.
Any confrontation would only serve to drag the economy down and throw more workers onto the streets.
Imposing the reforms on workers would obviously result in job boycotts that would be costly to the economy.
