HARARE, (Reuters) – Zimbabwe has lost 20,000 jobs in the last month after a court ruled that companies can fire workers by giving them three months’ notice, the main labour union said yesterday, as the government moved to amend the labour law to stop further losses.
Businesses in the southern African country, which has a jobless rate of more than 80 percent, are struggling with electricity shortages, high finance and labour costs and cheap imports, which has seen many firms fail to pay wages or forced to shut.
The latest wave of job losses are leading to renewed anger against President Robert Mugabe’s government, which promised 2 million jobs after winning the last elections in 2013.
Japhet Moyo, secretary general of the main Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, said a July 17 Supreme Court ruling had opened a floodgate for dismissals that have seen private firms and state-owned entities laying off thousands of employees.
Instead of the cumbersome and expensive process of paying severance packages, businesses now only have to give workers three months’ notice to terminate their employment.
“More than 20,000 workers have lost their jobs due to the Supreme Court ruling and as a union we are worried that if the situation is not urgently addressed more workers will continue to lose their jobs,” Moyo told Reuters.
