Tripartite Negotiating Forum In Salary Deadlock
8 February 2020
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Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) talks on salaries and wages reached a deadlock yesterday, with the Government and labour on one side agreeing that there should be a minimum wage, while business rejected this.

Yesterday’s meeting was the second among the parties to the TNF following Wednesday’s meeting and it was anticipated that the three would find each other and come up with a position to cushion workers and spur economic growth.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Professor Paul Mavima, who chaired the meeting, and Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) president Mr Peter Mutasa confirmed the deadlock, while business representative, Mr Sifelani Jabangwe said he wanted to brief his constituency before issuing a statement.

The process of aligning wages and prices dominated Wednesday and yesterday’s meetings.

Prof Mavima described the salaries and wages issue as an urgent matter which he would take to next Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting for guidance.

“We did not finish our deliberations on Wednesday because there was an issue of how we can address the erosion of wages of workers across the board in this country. We came back today (yesterday) to discuss that issue.

“We are very close to actually reaching a consensus. We want to take the issue to Cabinet so that it will make the necessary decision on the issue of the erosion of wages and salaries of the workers of this country.

“We are doing that in full cognisance of the fact that we are a country that needs to stabilise its economy and also that we are a country that needs to grow its economy towards attaining Vision 2030 that His Excellency, President Mnangagwa has articulated which is achieving an upper middle income economy by 2030,” said Prof Mavima.

He said there was need to balance between making sure that workers were compensated at a level where they would be motivated to continue offering their labour to the development of the country, but at the same time making sure that businesses remain viable.

“We need to increase capacity utilisation of businesses so that the economy can grow and we are hoping that when I go to Cabinet to make these presentations, Cabinet will give us the necessary guidelines and will make specific decisions on this particular issue,” he said.

-State media