Politicians by night, trade unionists by day

03 Apr, 2020 - 00:04 0 Views

The ManicaPost

Samuel Myambo Post Correspondent
OVER the past 20 years, trade unionism has become a huge business and source of employment for many.

As a result, most editions of the Government Gazette often carry one or more General Notice(s) by the Registrar of Labour informing the public about applications received by his office for registration of new trade unions.

This shows how popular this industry has become for some trade union entrepreneurs, some of whom are politicians at night, masquerading as trade unionists during the day.

Some of them see trade unionism as a profession as they were fired by their former employers due to misconduct.

Some trade union leaders either contested in political party primary elections, ward or parliamentary elections but did not resign from the unions they claim to represent.

This has left many people wondering whether the profession of trade unionism has no ethics or a code of acceptable behaviour as is the case with other professions where members are expected to be apolitical, at least in theory and in public.

What is even more disturbing is that some trade unions are neither transparent nor accountable to their membership.

They do not hold annual general meetings to discuss their successes and failures or challenges. They do not share audited financial statements with their members nor publish them.

Also, they do not share their constitutions with their members. On the contrary, only the founding members or very senior officials of such trade unions are privy to their organisation’s constitutions. In fact, I know of a former workers’ committee chairperson who resigned from his former trade union after he had been dressed down by the union’s secretary-general for daring to ask for a copy of the trade union’s registered constitution.

Most founding secretaries-general of trade unions hold office indefinitely or for life because they “own” the unions they lead.  In other words, they see their trade unions as their personal properties.

Some of the unions only exist to negotiate impossible salary and wage increments for their members because the more the workers earn, the more the union bosses will also receive in union dues from their members. This is why some of the trade union leaders enjoy flashy lifestyles.

Another sad development is that trade unions are becoming so desperate in their efforts to retain members.  They are now infringing on their members’ rights to withdraw from the unions. A case in point is that of one trade union that is going around the country asking its members to complete a membership form that includes the following statement:

“The employer is in terms of the Labour Relations Act Chapter 28:01 of 1996 Section 54(1) authorised by myself to deduct from my salary 5 percent subscription and remit to the union until instructed by the general secretary of the trade union in writing to cease such deductions every month, with effect from the receipt of this membership form.”

Unions survive on dues from their members. For this reason, no sane general secretary would instruct an employer to cease deducting union dues from a member, for whatever reason.

How then will an employee withdraw their membership from the union before the general secretary of the union agrees to it and communicates to the employer to stop deducting union dues from the member’s salary?

Needless to say, this is an infringement on the workers’ right to freedom of association as enshrined in Section 58 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. It is also a desperate attempt to stem the tide of workers’ mass exodus from the union.

In light of the aforementioned observations, it is my humble view that the Registrar of Labour needs to protect workers from trade unions that are now trampling on the rights of the workers that they claim to represent.

To this end, there is need for a legal instrument that enjoins trade unions to share their constitutions with their membership, hold general meetings with their members annually, publish audited financial statements in newspapers for the benefit of their members, allow public scrutiny and to observe a code of conduct.

Furthermore, apart from negotiating salary and wage increments on behalf of their members, trade unions should move with the times and equip their members with entrepreneurship skills so that they start their own business ventures while still working in order to supplement their low wages.

Similarly, unions also need to train their members on how to set up and manage workplace savings clubs so that the workers do not have to resort to borrowing from loan sharks.

 

Samuel Myambo is a human resources practitioner and analyst. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on 0773 504 764 or email to [email protected]

 

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