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Davies Ndumiso Sibanda
A LARGE number of workers in Zimbabwe earn wages and salaries that are way below the National Employment Council (NEC) minimums and problems arise when employees have been dismissed as they demand the difference between the minimum wage and what they were being paid.

In one of my earlier articles, I gave statistics on salaries that are paid in various sectors of our economy and this showed clearly that many workers are earning wages below the industry minimums.

What is happening on the ground clearly shows that our NEC and wages legislation have been dwarfed by the occasion.

For example the retail industry has moved from set minimums around $250 to around $120 to $150 for most workers and for rural traders, the wages are as low as $50.

In the mining industry, very few small-scale miners pay wages as most pay based on a percentage of what is realised from the sale of a particular mineral.

They use various formulae to pay each other.

It is more of service contracts than employment contracts.

The above given examples clearly show that a good chunk of the businesses in Zimbabwe now operate outside the NECs as new informal conditions of service and salary structures are developed.

The increased number of trade unions and with a number of them being commercial aggressive businesses rather than providing service to workers as set out in the Labour Act Chapter 28:01, has led to many conflicts with employers who are underpaying workers.

Most of these unions go about looking for workers whose wages have delayed and offer to get the money for them for a “levy” of between 10 and 25 percent of whatever they collect.

Whether they add value to the workers  lives or they are a liability to workers is debatable.

Such unions argue that they help workers but some workers resist paying saying it is unfair and some employers feel it’s ripping off workers.

In my view, until disgruntled workers go to court, employers have no choice but deduct and pay the union as directed by the workers.

It is not the employers’ business to argue with unions as workers will have chosen them as representatives and will have agreed to the deductions.

The involvement of unions in wage arrears payment has put many employers under a lot of pressure and some have responded by employing relatives and friends who they can easily talk to and settle matters.

In some cases, workers have been threatened with dismissal if ever they are seen talking to trade unionists.

This is common in the retail and domestic workers sectors.

Due to the fact that in most retail outlets workers are few and workers will have been employed through connections, it is easy to keep unions and NECs out and continue paying wages below the minimums.

Employers use personal relationships to manage workers.

I have heard of cases where fixed term contract workers have engaged unions to assist them with various labour disputes and in the majority of cases workers who do that get their contracts extinguished and are never re-engaged.

This serves as a veiled threat to remaining workers never to invite unions or the NEC again.

The issue is not whether it is right or wrong to underpay workers or whether unions are right or wrong in what they are doing but, that we need to accept there is a problem with our economy and institutions that are supposed to guide conditions of service, setting wages and salaries payment have been rendered irrelevant by the situation on the ground.

Most NECs are holding onto old ways and not responding to reality where employers and workers engage to find workable solutions that afford workers a living wage at the same tine ensuring recovery of the business.  The economy has filled the vacuum by crafting informal conditions of service.

In conclusion, there is a need to manage out the parallel informal economy that is now settled where different conditions of service and wage and salary structure have been set across industries but outside the NECs.

Penalising employers for not complying with NEC minimum conditions might not be the best solution as the problem is bigger than individual NECs, moreso given the fact that some workplace relationships are not clear whether they are employment contracts or service contracts.