via Employers challenge labour law amendments October 2, 2015
BATTLELINES are drawn between government and employers after the Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) filed an appeal in the High Court against clauses in the amended Labour Act which could have far-reaching implications on labour relations in Zimbabwe.
Charles Laiton
Employers are fighting the minimum mandatory retrenchment cost of every employer pegged at three months’ notice and two weeks salary for every year served, without considering the ability of employers to pay, among other factors.
In a court application filed by Lunga Gonese Attorneys in which Labour minister Prisca Mupfumira is the respondent, Emcoz executive director John Mufukare said the amendments are unconstitutional.
“This is an application for a declaration of the constitutional invalidity of certain provisions of the Labour Amendment Act No. 5 of 2015,” Mufukare said in his founding affidavit.
“I am prepared to go further to aver that this limitation came about through an arbitrary process of legislating, a knee-jerk reaction by the state to what it perceived as a social ill.That the process of legislating, the amendment Act, was reactionary is evidenced in the lack of thinking, consultation and research required to guide government action and law-making.”
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