KUDZAI KUWAZA THE International Labour Organisation (ILO) will table a report on Zimbabwe at the International Labour Conference set for later this month in Geneva, Switzerland after its recent visit to the country.
This follows a visit by an ILO team from April 25-29 drawn from Switzerland and South Africa to check on the compliance of conventions ratified by the country and its alignment with domestic laws.
During the visit, the ILO team met various stakeholders including the government, business and labour representatives.
The delegation also wanted to establish the state of labour in Zimbabwe and whether it enjoys fundamental rights, such as freedom of association enshrined in the country’s Constitution.
It also focused on the country’s progress on labour law reforms.
The report on Zimbabwe, however, will be tabled at the International Labour Conference to be held from May 27 to June 11.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary-general Japhet Moyo told the Independent that the labour union had raised a number of concerns to the ILO Direct Contact Mission, including its victimisation by the government.
“We raised a number of issues with the ILO delegation including certain clauses in the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act (Mopa), which are being used to victimise labour unions and are actually worse than the clauses, which were in the repealed Public Order and Security Act (Posa),” he said.
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“Labour union leaders have been arrested under the Mopa clauses. We have also seen the victimisation of labour unions in the retrenchment of all the union leaders at the National Railways of Zimbabwe as an example of this victimisation.”
Moyo said both labour and business told the delegation of the government’s failure to consult them as social partners in the Tripartite Negotiation Forum on major policy changes that had an adverse impact on their operations and the economy as a whole.
Moyo said unions also informed the ILO delegation that they were alarmed by the government’s intention to ban strikes under the Health Service Amendment Bill, which is ultra vires the Constitution.
“Government has committed itself to reforming the labour law. The process has been slow. In terms of compliance, we are still very far away,” he said.
