THE country’s largest labour body, the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU), has threatened to roll out mass protests and make life
difficult for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government until it has acceded to
workers’ demand for a living wage.
In a video clip released on Saturday, ZCTU president Peter
Mutasa called on workers to fight and make sure those “who are ruling not to
enjoy ruling us” if the workers continue to receive slave wages.
“We must unite and fight for a living wage,” Mutasa said.
“It is either we get our living wage so that we restore our
dignity, or we fight so that the oppressive class does not back their business
through our toiling and that those who are ruling, do not enjoy ruling us.
“We will defy every anti-people and anti-workers policies
and practices if the government does not consider the suffering of workers and
review or reverse policies and laws such as SI [statutory instrument] 142 of
2019. If employers continue to pay slave wages and commit all workers into abject
poverty, then workers only have one option. Workers will have to embark on
sustained non-violent resistance and fight back against these bad policies and
practices.”
Mutasa’s call for action comes as workers have threatened
to pull out of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF), which brings together
the workers, business and government, after parties failed to agree on a
standard minimum wage.
The workers have accused business of offering slave wages
paid in the fast-devaluing Zimbabwe dollar while using the United States dollar
as a reference currency when charging goods and services.
The talks stalled after workers demanded a minimum wage of
$3 800 across the board against business’ offer of $1 200 per month.
The TNF talks, according to the ZCTU, were also stalled by
business’ refusal to adopt the South African rand as an alternative to the
free-falling Zimdollar.
The ZCTU has repeatedly demanded that government fixes the
economy, characterised by inflation, shortage of goods and rolling power cuts,
among others.
In January last year, the ZCTU mobilised for a crippling
protest over a 150% fuel price hike by Mnangagwa, but government moved in and
ruthlessly crushed it — killing 17 people, while over 200 were allegedly maimed
by State security agents, according to civic society organisations.
In the video, Mutasa painted a gloomy picture of how
workers were surviving, calling on employers to stop profiteering through the
toiling workers.
“Anyone of you who has visited the supermarket lately, and
anyone who has paid school fees, anyone of us whose children are going back to
university, and anyone of us who has bought textbooks and exercise books,
anyone of us who has visited the pharmacy and those of us who have taken a sick
relative to the hospital, anyone of us who has visited the rural areas will
testify that we have lost our dignity as workers in this country,” he said.
“We are slaves, we have lost more dignity in this country,
we are earning slave wages, we can’t provide for the bare minimums, we can’t
provide for accommodation, for our family, we can’t provide for decent meals,
we can’t provide for clothing, we can’t provide for medical care, and now we
cannot send our children to school.”
Added Mutasa: “This is why as the ZCTU and all other unions
out there, we are demanding, and justifiably so, for a living wage. We want you
to hear us in this demand. It is a working class struggle and it is our
struggle. We do not mind if we are in the public sector. You may be in the
informal sector, you are a worker. You, in the rural economy, you are a worker;
you are in the urban economy, you are a worker.”
Contacted for comment yesterday, government said it was
seized with the issue of wages and working to ensure workers earn salaries
above the poverty datum line (PDL), which in December 2019 stood at around $4
000.
“Government is seized with the issue of wages and is fully
committed to rewarding workers satisfactorily,” Information deputy minister
Energy Mutodi said.
“We held TNF meetings recently in which ZCTU president
Peter Mutasa and others attended and it was agreed by stakeholders that a
minimum wage would be pegged. We believe those negotiations will end labour
unrest as all workers’ unions were represented.
“The minimum wage will be based on the poverty datum line,
ensuring that no worker earns a salary below the poverty datum line. Following
the deliberations that we made as TNF, it is not in the interest of the
negotiations for any one stakeholder to make pronouncements such as those by
the ZCTU before a final agreement is reached.”
In a related development, the Zimbabwe Diamonds Allied
Miners Workers Union (ZDAMWU) has called on its membership to reject salaries
below the PDL.
In a statement, ZDAMWU secretary-general Justice Chinhema
said mine workers had suffered immensely as their wages had failed to keep pace
with inflation.
‘Furthermore, the situation has worsened, rendering it
practically impossible for workers across all sectors to earn the current
salaries and sustain their families or be able to go to work,” Chinhema said,
adding that the minimum wage of $3 800 must be implemented through a statutory
instrument. Newsday
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