By Own Correspondent- Labour minister, Sekai Nzenza has told Senate that president Mnangagwa will soon sign the Tripartite Negotiating Forum Bill which will outlaw stay-aways or strikes before exhausting negotiation channels with government and other stakeholders.

The bill comes at a time when several workers groups have threatened to protest against the state of affairs. A January stay-away degenerated into chaos as military personnel shot and killed several civilians.

Properties were also lost as participants in the demonstration looted and torched some infrastructures.Responding to a question by Senator Langton Chikukwa, who wanted to know how the government was dealing with threats on labour unrest by teachers, Nzenza said:

“There is a new Bill that is going to be introduced soon known as the Tripartite Negotiation Forum Bill, which will assist government in ensuring that there are no stayaways before negotiations between government and its workers.

This Bill will be signed by the President on Wednesday, and it is a new initiative that was introduced that workers and government engage in negotiations and also with the Apex Council, and workers can no longer engage in stayaways before engaging the TNF stakeholders.

The ZCTU have been advocating the signing of the bill into law. However, it remains unknown whether the latest move by the government to ban protests will impress the labour union.