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Salaries and wages have been a contentious issue since the introduction of the multicurrency system in 2009. Workers feel they are grossly underpaid while employers on the other hand feel that the country’s salaries and wages are too high to the extent of constricting viability.

Workers go to work every day in order to sustain their families. They want to be able at the end of the month to earn enough to feed, clothe and pay rentals for their families. They also expect to be left with enough money for luxuries.

In Zimbabwe the push has been to peg salaries on the Poverty Datum Line, the minimum a worker needs to meet basics. The PDL is pegged at about $500 a month.

Most workers are however earning far less than this, with some taking home as little as $150 a month, meaning most households are not able to afford basics.

Employers have been pushing for productivity-linked salaries. What this in essence means is that workers should be paid according to production and profitability of a company.

The government appears to have sided with employers. According to a story carried in yesterday’s Business Chronicle, Cabinet has approved reforms to the country’s labour laws to introduce productivity- linked wages.

Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha said the reforms would take into account challenges in the economy which are affecting most companies.

The good thing about productivity-linked salaries is that there could be no limit to what workers earn. As long as productivity is high, they are assured of higher wages.

However, in a depressed economy like ours, this model might present problems. Most companies are not performing well. Most companies are operating at below 40 percent capacity.

According to the latest Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries manufacturing survey, the average capacity utilisation is 36.3 percent down from 39.6 percent last year.

It means that if these companies were to pay productivity-linked wages, workers would be taking home peanuts every month.

However, we note that Minister Bimha has said negotiations for salaries should be realistic. This should protect workers from unscrupulous bosses who would want to reduce wages under the pretext of low production.

There is no doubt salaries and wages constitute a significant cost of production that if allowed to spiral out of control, some companies might fall under the weight of unsustainable wage bills.

This means that workers and employers need to find a middle road which benefits both parties. Workers who remain hard headed and continue to demand PDL linked wages are being short-sighted because they are setting the genesis for the collapse of their companies.

Employers also need to be honest with workers about goings on at their companies.

In most cases employees are in the dark when a company is doing well as bosses will be secretely paying themselves performance bonuses but when things go bad, the same bosses want ordinary workers to share the burden of the struggling company by making sacrifices on their already meagre benefits.

While productivity linked wages are good, there should be a minimum limit which companies should not go below. The government will need to ensure this limit is set to protect workers from greedy bosses.