Zimbabwe to amend labor laws following massive job losses
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Read 2minutesPresident Robert Mugabe
Zimbabwe’s government is planning to amend new labor laws, which have lead to 20,000 job losses and growing anger among residents.
The laws, introduced last month, give employers the right to fire workers with only three months notice and without severance packages.
Businesses in Zimbabwe are struggling under electricity shortages, high finance and labour costs as well as cheap imports.
The Government says it will amend the laws by forcing employers to pay severance packages to sacked workers.
The latest wave of job losses are leading to renewed anger against President Robert Mugabe who promised to ease high unemployment rates and create 2 million jobs after winning the elections in 2013.
Parliament of Zimbabwe
Parliament, which had been on recess until the end of this month, has been recalled to debate the bill on Tuesday.
Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party holds a parliamentary majority and wants to fast-track the adoption of the amendments this week.
Busisa Moyo, president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), which represents mostly manufacturers, said most businesses could not afford to pay retrenchment packages.
He said some companies, including state-owned enterprises, had accumulated salary arrears of up to a year and were behind on tax and pensions payments. “So to ask a company that is already struggling to pay salaries to pay a retrenchment package will only force that business to close or go under judicial management,” CZI’s Moyo said.
