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Davis Sibanda Labour Matters
MANY employers invest a lot of money in workers leaders training but the training fails to improve labour relations because it will not have focused on the real needs of workers’ leaders.While a new workers’ committee has to be taken through labour legislation and related regulations the core of worker leadership lies in equipping workers’ leaders with worker leadership skills.

Workers’ leaders need training in leadership. They have to understand what makes an effective leader and in addition they need to fully understand the nature and characteristics of the people they lead.

Further, workers’ leaders to be effective have to be well trained in labour negotiations.

The training should cover issues for negotiation, the labour law and workplace negotiations, preparation for negotiation, opening negotiations, bargaining, closing and managing collective agreement.

Where the workers’ committee is not trained there are usually frequent requests for various things, demands for negotiations and illegal collective job action related to negotiable issues.

Workers’ leadership training also involves developing labour relations skills of workers’ leaders. These include practical application of labour law with a human face in the interest of workers and the business, negotiating conflicts and effective communication.

Another critical skill for workers’ leaders is the control skills from time to time workers’ leaders are called upon to control workers with divergent interests and views and if they fail to control their members there can be labour unrest resulting in damage to property, loss of productivity, jobs and in worse cases loss of human life.

A major skill for workers’ leaders is the presentation skills from time to time workers’ leaders make presentations to workers. Where workers’ leaders are not trained, their presentations can go wrong resulting in the workers’ committee becoming unpopular with workers or a wrong picture of management presented resulting in workers working with wrong information.

Basic interpretation of statutes skills are important as workers leaders will be called upon to interpret pieces of legislation to their members.

On many occasions failure to interpret correct legislation by workers’ leaders has cost some workers their jobs, led to conflict with employers and workers’ leaders have also been dismissed for failure to observe the legislation.

Writing skills are important. There are many documented cases of workers’ leaders who have lost their jobs for writing insolvent letters to their employers or sending offensive e-mails around.

Some have put irresponsible notices on notice boards. On analysing the letter one establishes that the misconduct was a result of lack of training. Some reports, notices and letters written by workers’ leaders lack important detail for workers to make decisions using them.

Other skills that workers leaders’ need include decision making skills, analytic skills, team work skills, time management skills, meeting management skills and discipline and grievance handling skills.

Employers have to invest time and money in ensuring workers’ leaders are trained. This can be done through a specialist trainer or the union can be asked to assist if it has the capacity to do so. The individual to provide the training must however be acceptable to the workers and seen as impartial.

Above all workers’ leaders need training in business appreciation, focusing on how the business they work in operates so as to add value to the business while they serve their members’ interests.

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: e-mail:[email protected] or Cell No: 0772 375 235