The legal regulation of the right to strike in Zimbabwe: international and comparative perspectives

Chitima, Washington

The legal regulation of the right to strike in Zimbabwe: international and comparative perspectives

Thesis / Dissertation

2008

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

School For Advanced Legal Studies

Faculty

Faculty of Law

Abstract

This dissertation explores the legal regulation of the right to strike in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean workers, like other workers the world over have struggled and continue to suffer to express their interests and views in the workplace. The study looks critically at the legislation which has regulated the right to strike in Zimbabwe, with particular emphasis on the period after 1990. The study also focuses on other legislation which though not being labour related, has had a lot of influence in the employment relations in the country, in particular as regards to strike action. The method of research has largely been literature review and to a great extent on a comparative perspective. Not much has been written by way of text books on the subject of the right to strike in Zimbabwe. Some scholars have however put together various writings which have been a great reference point for this study. Among them are Professor Lovermore Madhuku and Munyaradzi Gwisai, who are part of the leading authors in the study of Labour Law in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean case law is also rich in matters pertaining to strike law in Zimbabwe and it forms part of the research material for this study. The aim of the study is to make an assessment of whether the legal regulation of the right to strike in Zimbabwe assists or act as an impediment to the Zimbabwean workers to exercise the right to strike. A relative result is obtained by undertaking a comparative analysis. The study reveals that the right to strike is provided for under legislation in Zimbabwe. In practice however the study reveals that it is almost impossible for the Zimbabwean workers to embark on a lawful strike. The procedural requirements to engage in a lawful strike are so cumbersome that what the legislation gives with one hand it takes away with the other. Coupled with this is the criminalisation of strike action which fails to meet the procedural requirements. The study observes that the failure of the Zimbabwean legislature to provide for a worker friendly regulatory framework on the right to strike is three fold. Firstly, this is a result of a failure to acknowledge that strike action plays an important role in collective bargaining. The regulation of the right to strike thus is not in sync with objectives of promoting collective bargaining. Secondly, there is absence of an effective social dialogue policy in Zimbabwe. Theoretically there appears to be efforts towards this, but the government, employers and labour, as a combined entity, hardly have any influence in labour law reform. The result has been a failure to meet each party's expected aspirations and relationships tainted by suspicion. Thirdly, and flowing from the second, the political climate in Zimbabwe is such that the government and the workers view each other as two parties in different political divides. This has been attributed to the formation of an opposition political party whose birth is associated with the biggest labour centre in the country. The result has been that the government takes labour not as a vital social and economic partner, but as a political foe to compete with for political survival.

Keywords

labour law

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