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LABOUR RELATIONS
INFORMATION SERVICE
2014 is the 27th year of continuous publication
Available on subscription only, 6-month membership
of 'LRIS' brings you by email 12 fortnightly Bulletins
and 2 quarterly Journals (totalling 40 pages in 6
months) of timely and valuable information on
Zimbabwe’s labour relations and legislation.
We keep you up-to-date, in layman's language.
In our fortnightly bulletins, we give practical
explanations of labour law – e.g. calculating gratuities
in 35 sectors, contact details for 50 National
Employment Councils (NEC’s); the latest on taxing
vehicle benefits and retrenchment packages,
Supreme Court’s criticism of ‘outrageous’ arbitral
awards; the law on compulsory retirement; an
employer’s options when accrued vacation leave
exceeds 90 days; the law on reducing/not paying
wages or benefits to assist company cash-flow; what
constitutes a living wage for a domestic worker;
coping with crippling back payments when wage
increases are backdated; dealing with abuse of sick
leave; mutual agreements-to-terminate in place of
retrenchment; etc. For reference and comparative
purposes, we summarise Collective Bargaining
Agreements setting sectoral wages (e.g. catering,
banking, leather, plastics, chemicals, security,
tourism, mining, construction, transport, motor trade,
textiles, commercial, welfare, printing).
In our quarterly journals, we summarise Court
decisions on labour disputes – e.g. Labour Court
cannot ‘pluck figures out of the air’ in assessing
damages; an employer can reverse a decision to
retrench; employer successfully sues employee for
stolen products; disputes over retaining company
cars after resignation; how to notify an absent
employee of a disciplinary hearing; whether an
employee can go to the Labour Court before
exhausting all domestic remedies; arbitrators do not
have unbounded powers to alter penalties, etc.
The subscription of $90 covers 6 months
To arrange payment, contact Linda Morgan –
on 0772 240 992
or e-mail aquamor@mweb.co.zw
TO WHOM the fortnightly e-mail Bulletins and quarterly
Journals should be sent –
Name ________________________________________
Position ______________________________________
Organisation __________________________________
EXTRACTS from recent bulletins, to whet your appetite
THE ADDITIONAL DOLLAR-COST OF EMPLOYMENT
Estimates of employment costs as a proportion of
total costs vary from 30% in manufacturing up to
70% in service industries… An additional 40-75%
may need to be added to basic remuneration to get a
true picture of the costs of employing labour…
Obviously, this depends whether transport and
housing allowances are included in pay; how much
are the NEC Dues; does the employer contribute to a
worker’s pension scheme/medical aid scheme/funeral
insurance scheme; are meals provided; are
uniforms/protective gear provided? and so on… Take
the example of a worker earning $300 pm basic pay Estimate of Employer’s additional monthly payments
NSSA (3,5%)
$10.50
WCIF (say, average 1,5%)
$ 4.50
NEC (say, average 1%)
$ 3.00
Manpower Levy (1%)
$ 3.00
Standards Levy (0,5%)
$ 1.50
Transport allowance, say
$35.00
Accommodation allowance, say $56,00
Sub-total of statutory contributions
$113.50
Monthly provision for 13th cheque $25.00
Teas/Canteen costs, 22 days, say $55.00
Pension scheme (say, 7,5%)
$22.50
Medical Aid, say 50% of $10pm $ 5.00
Funeral Insurance, say 50%
$ 4.00
Sub-total discretionary contributions
$111.50 +
Estimated additional cost of employment
(another 75% on $300 p.m. basic pay) $225.00
Although there is no general provision in the Labour
Act for compulsorily retiring an employee on the
basis of his or her having attained a certain age (e.g.
60 or 65), compulsory age-related retirement may be
provided for in the following ways –
o if an employee has signed an individual contract
of employment stipulating retirement at 65, or
o if a company’s general conditions of service
provide for retirement at a certain age, or
o if retirement at a certain age has by custom and
practice become the accepted retirement age…
however, if there is a dispute, you are likely to be
called on to prove the existence of custom and
practice by showing a pattern of specific
instances of age-based retirement over time…
o if retirement at a certain age is provided for in a
the principal CBA for your sector…
Specific pension fund rules usually specify retirement
ages for their membersfrom the specific pension
fund, not necessarily from employment…
Phone _______________________________________
e-mail ________________________________________
postal address _________________________________
There are two Supreme Court judgments that in
specific instances could be taken to authorize
compulsory retirement from employment However…
- and extracts from recent BIZ Bulletins
SUBSCRIBE to Howard Dean's
BUSINESS INFORMATION ZIMBABWE
2014 - 20th year of continuous publication
Subscribing
to ‘BIZ’ for 6 months will save you
time and money – by updating you on current
business and commercial law in Zimbabwe.
In fortnightly BIZ bulletins we recently reported, in
everyday language, latest amendments to VAT and
Customs legislation; the law on shop licences; an
update on indigenisation; 2014 National Budget tax
measures; the law on passing counterfeit USD
banknotes (and ways to check for counterfeits);
regulations on ethanol-blended petrol (10/15/20/85%
blends) and related public anxieties; new legislation
on vehicle licences based on net mass; the law on
borehole fees, bottled water and bulk water sales; and
much more.
Plus - Each quarter we issue layman’s summaries of
selected Supreme Court and High Court cases – e.g.
equitable grounds for winding up a company; judicial
management not an experiment to evade paying
debts; limits on Ministerial powers to gazette
regulations; a stubborn refusal to settle a dispute can
lead to punitive costs; regulatory body illegally orders
destruction of goods; the legality of disclaimer
clauses in contracts; cancelling a lease if a tenant
pays rent late; whether a contract is automatically
cancelled when one party pays less than 100%; etc.
Paying
a six-monthly subscription to Business
Information Zimbabwe brings direct to your office
by email 2 quarterly journals plus 12 bulletins,
totalling 40 pages of relevant up-to-date information
on business and commercial law in Zimbabwe – all
written in easily-understood layman’s language. This
personal library constitutes a valuable resource and
ready reference for those in business in Zimbabwe.
Subscription is $90, covering 6 months of material
To arrange payment of a 6-month subscription ($90) please contact Linda Morgan on 0772 240 992
or e-mail aquamor@mweb.co.zw
TO WHOM the fortnightly e-mail Bulletins and
quarterly Journals should be sent –
Name
_______________________________________
Position _______________________________________
Organisation ____________________________________
Phone _________________________________________
e-mail _________________________________________
Postal address __________________________________
Reports that the police are arresting consumers for
tendering fake USD banknotes (reportedly from $5 to
$100 notes) led us to look at the law on this.
‘Uttering a false banknote’ is criminalized as fraud
by sections 135/136 of the Criminal Law Code of
Zimbabwe. This means you risk arrest for trying to
buy anything with a fake banknote if you know there
is a possibility that it is fake…
A few rough-and-ready tests to quickly check
whether a US banknote is genuine... the watermark
test, the embedded security strip test, the colour
shifting test, the fingernail test (for engraving and
embossing resulting from intaglio printing), the
crumple test (US banknotes are printed on
linen/cotton paper not wood-pulp paper, so…)
___________________________________________
BACK TO BASICS AT POLICE ROADSIDE CHECKS
As diamond revenues shrink, the authorities shift
focus to their traditional system of spot fines, as
indicated by recent questions from subscribers…
 '“Must your vehicle still carry a fire extinguisher?”
 “Can you be fined ‘because your vehicle fire
extinguisher has not been serviced’ in the past 6
months even though the pressure indicator still
shows green?”

“Can you be fined ‘because you don’t have a
reflective jacket in your vehicle?”
 “Is it right that you can be fined ‘because your car
battery is not fastened down tightly enough’?”
 ‘Can you be fined ‘because your Third Number
Plate is in the wrong place’?”
 “Can you be fined ‘for not carrying your licence’?”
 “Must you hand your drivers licence to a police
officer on demand or can you just show it?”
 “Is a police officer required by law to provide his
name, rank and force number on request?”
Briefly, yes, no, yes, maybe, yes, yes, yes – but this is
what the law actually says in each case…
___________________________________________
Who needs a shop licence to trade?
Section 4 of the Shop Licences Act (Chapter 14:17 of
the Statute Law of Zimbabwe) stipulates that no
person shall carry on ‘the trade or business of selling
or letting for hire any goods’ without a valid licence.
‘Goods’ are defined in section 2 of the Act as ‘wares,
merchandise, produce and, generally corporeal (i.e.
tangible, having a physical bodily existence) movable
things of any description’.
It would seem to follow from this that a business that
sells only services (financial, legal, recruitment etc)
would not need a shop licence.
However, there have been reports of municipal
officials seeking to press service providers to obtain a
shop licence...