The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has predicted more suffering and anguish in 2016, saying more job losses and company closures are imminent, unless the government radically changes its policies.
by XOLISANI NCUBE
ZCTU President, George Nkiwane told Southern Eye that as things stood, 2016 was all but doom for workers.
“2016 is going to be a tough year for the workers, we are likely to see more job losses and death of the formal economy, unless we change our policies as a matter of urgency. What we witnessed this year will be surpassed because the economy is shaky,” Nkiwane said.
Thousands of workers this year lost their jobs, following the July 17 Supreme Court ruling allowing companies to fire employees on three months’ notice without compensation.
Nkiwane said although the government had managed to stop the labour carnage by amending the labour Act, the economic crisis bedevilling the country posed a serious threat to peace and stability, as the high unemployment rate was likely to force street protests and demonstrations.
“We have seen private employers and the government working tirelessly to disempower the workers. There is a rapid increase in company closures, workers are going home without salaries and this has affected negatively their negotiating power, as well as labour activism,” Nkiwane said.
He said the struggle continued next year, with ZCTU planning to mobilise masses to force the government to respect workers and honour its election promises to create 2 million jobs.
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“When we are staging these demonstrations, we are not calling for nothing else than reminding the government to value workers because they are the ones who are creating the country’s wealth,” the ZCTU leader said.
The labour body was on several times this year blocked by the police from staging demonstrations.
In August, Parliament hastily rubber stamped the Labour Act amendments with the aim of halting the wanton dismissal of workers.
Instead, the amendments left both labour and business disillusioned.
“Our only weakness currently is that we have a worker who has no salary to talk about, a worker whose festive season morale is low,” Nkiwane said.
