The economic crisis engulfing Zimbabwe, in combination with repressive laws, are causing problems for workers in the collective bargaining arena.
Most employers are refusing to grant yearly increases or abide by wage settlements. In some instances, employers have not granted increases in the past two years.
Workers in the engineering industry, represented by the National Engineering Workers’ Union (Newu), have not been granted increases for two years because employers appealed against an arbitration judgment which granted an increase of 20%.
The appeals, which are handled by the High Court, take up to five years to come before the courts. In the Newu matter it was worse because jurisdictional issues needed to be addressed before the merits could be argued.
The union, fearing that the matter would drag on for a long time agreed to a compromise. An agreement has now been signed with the employers which raises minimum wages from R2 187 to R2 466 per month.
Lovermore Mazenge, the general secretary of Newu, says the union is afraid to use strike action to resolve these issues because this might jeopardise the few jobs their members are clinging to. The Zimbabwean economy is in a very bad shape and the recent indigenisation laws have worsened the precarious position.
Since the introduction of the US dollar as a currency in Zimbabwe the cost of living has skyrocketed. Despite the fact that more goods are available in stores than when Zimbabwe dollars were the currency, workers cannot afford them. The Poverty Datum Line is now R5 148 per month.
In the parastatals, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) has resorted to brutal methods in refusing to grant increases. It suspended 135 workers indefinitely without pay for signaling their intention to protest against the company’s refusal to comply with an arbitration award on wages.
Zesa demanded that they drop their demand for increases in return for being reinstated. Fearing loss of production, it has reinstated everybody except the union president, Angeline Chitambo, who is also the Industri-All executive member for Africa. Her dismissal is being contested through the courts by her union, the Zimbabwe Electricity Workers’ Union (Zewu).
In the iron and steel sector, the workers are in very difficult situation because their company, Zisco Steel, has not been producing because of a dispute on shareholding with the government. As a result, they have not been paid for two years.
Workers in the electronic sector are in deadlock with the employers and the matter has been referred to arbitration. In 2012 their minimum wage was raised from R2 025 to R2 385 per month but they are now demanding R3 240.
In some companies in the textile sector, employers have not paid wages for the past five months.
Repression and police brutality have forced unions to rely heavily on the courts and arbitration to resolve wage disputes. However, the strategy has backfired because employers are frustrating the process through lengthy appeals.
This tactic may force unions to rethink their strategy of not using industrial action to resolve disputes. Already workers are frustrated by the situation, which renders unions useless.
The unions cite security laws such as the Public Order and Security Act (Posa) which prevents gatherings of more than three persons as preventing them from striking. One frustrated worker says the laws could be circumvented if strikers resort to factory occupations as a tactic to avoid gathering outside in public, where they are at the mercy of Robert Mugabe’s police.
Working to rule, go-slows, stoppages and other tactics could be employed avoid confrontation with the police, unless policemen enter the factory’s premises. The repression of trade union leadership could be circumvented by training numerous leaders within the workplace to take over as soon as others are arrested.
Legal strategies may not be adequate to prepare trade unions to battle the political and economic crisis engulfing the country, as workers are unable to test their labour power in disputes.
Hlokoza Motau is Numsa’s international officer.