Govt bullying workers in NJNC’

Source: Govt bullying workers in NJNC’ – DailyNews Live Bridget Mananavire • 4 May 2016

HARARE – Workers have accused the government of bullying them in the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC).

Apex Council chairperson Cecilia Alexander said government was not listening to workers and had adopted a “take-it-or-leave-it approach” at the negotiating table.

“The current NJNC is as unconstitutional as it is unfair as its provisions favour the employer, leaving the civil servant with no recourse in the event of a deadlock,” she said during the flopped government-organised Workers’ Day celebrations on Monday.

“To us, the NJNC has proved to be a talk shop, where the employer uses a take-it-or-leave-it approach to dialogue.”

The NJNC is a negotiating platform for talks between government, employers and workers.

“It is long overdue for civil servants to enjoy the rights conferred to us in section 65 of the Constitution, especially the right to collective bargaining among others, that bargaining is one of the key functions of any trade union,” she said.

Alexander said workers were dismayed at the way government is implementing reforms recommended in the civil service audit report.

“There has been suspension of school teacher leave; this has resulted in more work and less pay. There has also been harassment by colonial type of civil service factors,” she said.

Alexander accused government of making “empty promises” to workers, including housing schemes which have remained a pie in the sky, as well as putting the health of workers at risk.

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa told the workers: “As a nation, we have together endured the challenges, burdens and pains experienced during this period which has been characterised by a protracted attack on every sector of our economy extending even to the moral and ethical fibre of our society as a whole (due to Western sanctions). You workers were not spared.”‘