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afrol News, 4 November - Trade unions' rights in Zimbabwe have been deteriorating over the last years, according to a new report. The right to strike is practically inexistent and working conditions are "unfavourable". According to recently published 2001 Survey on Trade Union Rights Violations by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), "it is practically impossible to organise a legal strike" in Zimbabwe. The right to strike is not recognised in the Zimbabwean Constitution. Public service workers are forbidden to strike at any time, and any occupation at all may be classified by the government as "essential". - If the service is not essential, a majority of the workers must give their consent to the strike, and then the government must agree that it is impossible otherwise to find a solution to the conflict, the ICFTU report notes. "The interdiction to strike is absolute as far as those workers in the public sector are concerned who have not managed to organise and engage in collective bargaining. These rights are also denied to management personnel." Despite all this, the international unionists agree there still are efforts being made to extract concessions from the government - "albeit so far without success." Parliamentary discussions on a possible harmonisation of labour laws "have not always been fruitful, nor have those on the contents of a social contract between the Government, employers and trade unions," the report concludes. Although the Constitution guarantees the independence of the management of union affairs, a provision in the Labour Relations Law grants the Government the right to oversee the management of union finances, a fact listed as a trade union rights violation. The survey also laments the reported deteriorating labour rights in the Zimbabwean Export Processing Zones. The 1995 law establishing Export Processing Zones in Zimbabwe exempts employers in such zones from the obligation to abide by the labour laws. - Although the ZCTU [the Zimbabwean trade union] has succeeded in negotiating directly with several of these investors in order to permit the organisation of their employees, the working conditions and the conditions with regard to freedom of association in these zones are in general, highly unfavourable, the ICFTU concludes. The ICFTU earlier this year had expressed its "utter dismay and frustration" in a letter to President Robert Mugabe, over the continuous violation of trade union rights. It urged Mugabe to "to take the necessary measures to put a stop to these violations and to make sure that the rights of the workers and the trade unions are respected." As Zimbabwe is a member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the government theoretically is obliged to guarantee the rights of workers and their representative organisations. This includes the right to strike.
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