Labour minister Prisca Mupfumira will meet employers in Mutare next month to discuss a number of issues including Labour Law reforms.
BY Kudzai Kuwaza
This will be the second such meeting after her first meeting with employers in Harare recently where she said she expected the Labour Law reforms to be in place by June saying it was the key result area for her ministry.
Mupfumira was appointed Labour minister in December last year replacing Nicholas Goche who was fired by President Robert Mugabe.
Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (ECZ) executive director John Mufukare said the meeting would give employers in Mutare a platform to meet the minister and express their concerns to her.
“A good number of employers in Mutare have already booked for the breakfast meeting with the minister on March 3 and they are looking forward to it,” Mufukare said. “The Mutare business community has not been spared from the devastation of the economy’s decline.
He said the minister would give an update on the progress made in the completion of the Labour Law reforms as well as other issues affecting them.
Mufukare said the outlook for 2015 looked gloomy as the acute economic challenges that have led to the retrenchment of at least 7 000 workers last year and the widespread closure of companies were yet to be addressed.
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“There is nothing that is happening on the ground to suggest that there will be any easing of the economic challenges we are facing this year,” Mufukare said.
In his 2015 budget statement last year, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa revealed that 4 610 companies have closed resulting in the loss of more than 55 440 jobs between 2011 and 2014.
The challenges the country is facing, which include low capacity utilisation and a debilitating liquidity crunch, have prompted Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya to call for a salary freeze coupled with the reduction of prices to stem the alarming decline.
