Parly committee approves Labour Bill Berita Chikwama
Berita Chikwama

Berita Chikwama

Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare yesterday approved the Labour Amendment Bill, which is expected to be presented in Parliament for debate today.

The Labour Amendment Bill was gazetted last Friday.

The chairperson of the committee Cde Berita Chikwama yesterday told The Chronicle that no public hearings would be conducted on the Amendment Bill as there was no time to do so.

“We met today as a committee and adopted the proposed Amendment Bill. We have no time to go out and conduct public hearings on the Bill. It will therefore go through Parliament tomorrow. After presenting the Bill in Parliament, we then put additions and subtractions if there is need to do so,” said Cde Chikwama.

Responding to some objections to the proposed law by employers, Cde Chikwama said some of the input to it had been sumbitted by employers. “Our role as a committee is to represent people and protect workers. If there are any objections from employers they are not much as they also contributed some input to the bill,” said Cde Chikwama.

Unions welcomed the proposals in the Labour Amendment Bill that seek to take away employers’ rights to unilaterally dismiss them on three months’ notice without benefits. The Bill provides for benefits for all employees who lost their jobs on the basis of the common law position which the Bill seeks to repeal.

Legal experts have said the proposed law could help dismissed workers get their jobs back as the July 17, 2015 Supreme Court ruling that triggered the spate of sackings was relative to Zuva Petroleum only.

Employers, however, have objected to the Bill and predicted massive company closures and more job loses if the Bill is passed into law.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Busisa Moyo described the Bill as reactionary and insensitive to the interests of business.

He called for wider consultations before the Bill is promulgated and warned that the country could be plunged into further crisis if the proposals of the Bill were maintained.

The Bill proposes a minimum retrenchment package for workers in the event that their work contracts are terminated on notice. If it becomes law, thousands of workers who were dismissed on three-months notice will be entitled to compensation for termination of their contracts.

Clause 5 of the Bill says those who lose jobs on contract termination are entitled to minimum retrenchment benefits that include one month salary for every two years of service.

This will apply to both retrenchees in general and workers whose contracts were terminated on or after July 17, 2015 with employers required to pay up “no later than the date when the notice of termination of employment takes effect.”

Clause 5 repeals parts of Section 12c of the Labour Act dealing with retrenchment procedures and creates the compensation provision in 12c (2).

It reads: “Unless better terms are agreed between the employer and employees concerned or their representatives, a package (hereinafter called the minimum retrenchment package) of not less than one month’s salary or wages for every two years of service as an employee (or the equivalent lesser proportion of one month’s salary or wages for a lesser period of service) shall be paid by the employer as a compensation for loss of employment is occasioned by retrenchment or by virture of termination of employment pursuant to section 12 (4a) (a), (b) or (c)no later than date when the notice of termination of employment takes effect.”

 

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