By Takura Zhangazha*
With high levels of unemployment in the formal sector in Zimbabwe it is relatively given that formal trade unionism and workers rights activism is on the decline. Yes we still have trade unions such as the brave Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and its affiliates. But it is only to be honest to say that workers’ rights activism is probably at an all time low.
Not only because of the desperation many Zimbabweans have for any formal employment but also for fear of losing even that basic regular income, inadequate as it is, due to summary dismissals by nefarious bosses.
In this, there is a not so new work/employment culture in Zimbabwe that exudes fear, arbitrary control and vicitmisation of the ordinary employee. But mainly ‘fear’ of losing formal employment and whatever limited little benefits that accrue from it.
This is a rarely openly discussed subject matter. Not least because of how either Human Resource departments run rings around employees. Or where lawyers file callous anti-worker litigation for big corporates (Zuva judgement anyone?)
So you may be a teacher, a nurse, a journeyman, bank clerk, driver, engineer, accountant, farm worker or bar tender and security guard, your work environment is probably one that is ladled with fear. A fear that relates to the possibility of a loss of employment. Or as the young workers now say, a loss of the ‘base’ for any potential ‘hustle’.
This culture of workplace fear then creates a subculture of individualism and patronage to bosses. Work colleagues begin to sell each other out in order to retain arbitrary favourable perceptions from their management superiors.
Other colleagues also fall victim to sexual and unfair working hour’s abuse due to their desperation to keep these formal jobs.
And the bosses do not mind these developments at all. In fact, they exploit them further. They will ensure that, if need be they emphasize the importance of following either labour law procedure which in Zimbabwe, favours them more than the worker.
The one thing that they will try and weaken is that which is still allowed. That is the Workers Committee. Or in any other format, Workers representation on issues that affect them within the company or the organization. They play on at least three issues.
The first being the work culture based on fear and vulnerability by employees of losing their jobs. The second being having a strong Human Resources team that reinforces not only fear but offers the carrot to those workers that are deemed to be performing in line with mainstream management (awards as mundane as bicycles).
In the third instance, they focus on ensuring that if there is a Workers Committee at either shop floor or other level, they weaken it.
Either by way of planting their own runners in it, or planting the fear of God in any radicalized leaders that may want to punch above their weight. This includes arbitrary dismissals that drag out in court until the affected workers cannot afford labour lawyers and eventually just give up on what would be justiciable labour rights cases.
This is also exacerbated with the new student internship schemes wherein cheaper, less qualified labour can be brought into to cover assumed gaps of more experienced employees. Essentially student interns in all fields are treated as though they do not have labour rights. And they are held hostage by not only where they are doing their internship but also by their own universities/ colleges that reserve the right to permit them to progress in their academic endeavours.
The combination becomes one of a fearful disempowered formal worker and a helpless, temporary student intern replacement and a malicious HR department in tandem with self-absorbed management out to protect its own material interests.
Obviously we may ask, is there a solution to this? The quick answer is that we have to re-vitalize workers unionism and rights within our variegated workspaces. From the workers committees through to the formal registered and accountable trade unions.
This includes even those that are in temporary employment, because as the long standing maxim has historically gone, “An Injury to One, Is an Injury to All”.
The existent unions in Zimbabwe also now have to take this into account. Whereas before, unionism was more or less a given, it is no longer contextually the same in the contemporary. A lot of young workers do not understand unionism’s benefits out of fear of losing their jobs and short term materialistic desires. Until they are unfairly dismissed or arbitrarily, even legally, taken advantage of without the necessary representation and collective support.
We have to actively re-encourage the formation of workers committees, workers representation at all levels of Zimbabwe’s political economy. Be it in blue or white collar jobs.
This is where a new critical national consciousness around fairness and social economic justice can be revived. Especially for young Zimbabweans. And to ensure that cdes understand that in Southern Africa all post World War Two liberation movements stemmed initially from labour based workers’ rights movements such as the Industrial Commercial Workers Union of Clement Kadalie and subsequently of Joshua Nkomo as time progressed.
Now, I am not as seasoned a trade unionist as I would have wished for. In my employment history I have sort of straddled both employee and management roles. Even though more as an employee than a manager. So I have in multiple instances been a representative of what is generally referred to as the “Workers Committee”. And I still realise that even those in so called management positions need to get over themselves and recognize that workers have rights. And moreso that they do not need to work in fear, let alone in cutthroat neo-liberalism. We are all human.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com
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