Workers’ unions are skeptical about the announcement made Wednesday by Zanu PF that Zimbabwe's labor law will be ammended in an effort to curb job cuts that have seen more than 18,000 workers being laid off within three weeks.
Party spokesman, Simon Khaya Moyo, told reporters in Harare that Zanu PF’s Politburo agreed to review the law to contain a possible crisis in the labour market.
However, he could not say when the proposed changes would be tabled before parliament.
“There is nobody who is also keen to see the Presidential Powers invoked. We don’t want to go that route,” he said.
The Supreme Court ruled last month that it is legal to dismiss employees on a three months’ notice with no terminal benefits or retrenchment packages.
Although labor unions have asked President Mugabe to invoke presidential powers to stem the tide of job losses that have swept through 48 companies including parastatals, the president said he will not use that route.
Some legal analysts say using the presidential powers would be circumventing the constitution.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary general, Japhet Moyo, told Studio 7 they are not taking the proposed amendments seriously and are therefore going ahead with their planned protests Saturday to pressure government to take action on the massive job cuts.