By Patrick Ndlovu – LEAD Vice President
I would like to thank the government and His Excellency President E D Mnangagwa for putting the lives of Zimbabweans in a safe zone through the 21-Day Lockdown.
However, we have realized that workers have been left without any protection from the state as employers have been given too much power to decide the fate of their employees for this whole period. This is epitomised in such scenarios as in those circumstances wherein employers are now forcing employees to sign leave days. Where they are cited as essential services employees are called to work for a period of two weeks then the other week they are made to sign leave forms. To us this is not right for workers as we feel that the employers don’t want to be on the losing end thus exposing their employees to bear upon themselves the whole burden of this pandemic. The most pertinent issue that comes into question is whether these employees are going to be paid overtime, risk allowance or danger allowance for putting their lives on the firing line by going to work for instance nurses, doctors, shop workers, just to mention but only a few especially considering their lack of Personal Protective Equipment .
As Labour Economists and Afrikan Democrats (LEAD) we do hereby call upon the government to devise a way on how these workers are going to compensated. It is of paramount importance to note that most of these workers are faced with hunger threats back at home due to unsustainable incomes and therefore survive on buying and selling during their spare times. Now that all this has been put on hold due to this lockdown they are hereby faced with a double tragedy.
It must be noted that other companies are already retrenching and terminating employees contracts due to this lockdown which is a step meant to sabotage government efforts to curb the spreading of COVID-19. The employees have not committed any offence which warrants retrenchment or termination of contracts but employers are now taking advantage of the situation to unlawfully do away with workers. We do hereby call upon the relevant ministries to deal with this matter urgently.
Patrick Ndlovu, LEAD Vice President
More so, workers in the non essential services category will probably have nothing to take home at the end of the month, how does the government expect them to sail through? Where are they going to get money for rentals and other basic household essentials? Some are parents who will be expected to pay tuition for their school going children as the schools open where are they going to get money for that? We call the government to to see how best they can assist those affected by this.
Do we have a COVID-19 fund?
What is the use of those funds?
Moreover, we as LEAD would like to thank the government for trying to compensate SMEs both formal and informal. We hope that the exercise is going to be done transparently without fear or favour along non partisan lines.
Conclusively, it can be noted from the above that workers are the most affected by this lockdown and so we need the government to intervene and assist the worker.
SHINGA MUSHANDI SHINGA!!!
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#TOGETHER WE CAN
#ABANTU SONKE
#VANHU TOSE
Patrick Ndlovu
LEAD Vice President
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