via Defend your rights, ZCTU urges workers 31/12/2014
ZCTU President George Nkiwani Wednesday urged workers to remain resolute in 2015 and continue fighting for more rights in the face of depreciating working conditions and low incomes.
The government recently said it was in the process of reviewing the country’s labor laws something which the state media claims will improve the working conditions of the underpaid workers.
But in an interview Nkiwani dismissed reports by the state media.
He said: “To be honest I don’t think there is going to be any improvement on the working conditions of workers unless there is drastic change on policy direction by the government.”
Recently David Chapfika, Budget and Finance parliamentary committee chairperson, proposed for the review of the labor laws arguing that the current environment was not sustainable.
The labor flexibility laws will see massive retrenchment of civil servants in 2015 to contain a swelling wage bill which has so far gobbled 82% of government revenue. Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa also confirmed plans to cull the civil service.
In view of this background, the ZCTU boss called upon the country’s working class to remain committed and never to surrender.
“I call upon all the working people of Zimbabwe to continue fighting for a developmental state, a state that is accountable to its citizens, a state that responds to the people’s needs.
“And one path that they should never choose is that of surrender and submission,’ said Nkiwani.
A decade of economic turmoil has seen Zimbabwe failing to comply with international labor regulations, seeing a number of its workers either unlawfully retrenched or going either underpaid or virtually unpaid for years.
With the poverty datum line standing at a staggering $560, most working families have remained trapped in abject poverty.
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“To be honest I don’t think there is going to be any improvement on the working conditions of workers unless there is drastic change on policy direction by the government.”