THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) would like to express its shock and disgust over the production of a draft Labour Bill by the government in its attempt to hoodwink the ILO High level mission that was in Zimbabwe assessing the government’s implementation of the findings and recommendations of the 2009 ILO Commission of Inquiry that investigated serious violations of workers’ rights in Zimbabwe.
While the issue of the Harmonized labour Act has been dragging for years as government was moving forth and backward, the ZCTU was surprised to get a copy of a new draft that was drafted by a consultant hired by the government. The government had lied to the IL that social partners had agreed on the consultant.
The ZCTU wants to make it clear that it has nothing personal about the consultant, but feels that other partners should have been involved in the selection process. The ZCTU will not regard the draft labour bill as a working document until all parties are agreed.
In the meantime, the ZCTU applauds the ILO Mission and look forward to the publication of its findings.
The ILO High level mission assessed the government’s implementation of the findings and recommendations of the 2009 ILO Commission of Inquiry which unearthed serious violations of workers’ rights in Zimbabwe. It also observed the existence of “a clear pattern of arrests, detentions, violence and torture by security forces against trade unionists that coincided with ZCTU nationwide events, indicating that there had been some centralized direction to the security forces for such an act”.
The ILO commission recommended the following: 1) the harmonization of the labour laws in Zimbabwe. 2) a stop to all anti-union practices. 3) Establishment of a human rights commission. 4) Training of security forces on freedom of association, civil liberties and human rights. 5) Training of Judicial officers on freedom of association, civil liberties’, human rights and provision of adequate resources to the courts. 6) Strengthening of social dialogue. 7) provision of technical assistance by the ILO.
The ILO High Level Mission was also assessing on the Status of Implementation of Committee of Application of standards (CAS) Conclusions of 2016. Attached below are the ZCTU submissions to the Mission.
Japhet Moyo
SECRETARY-GENERAL
