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National Employment Council (NEC)

PostedJune 21, 2023
UpdatedJune 22, 2023
ByPhineas Sixpence

A brief history of NECs and how they were formed: “During the 1980s, the industrial relations system in Zimbabwe envisaged Employment Boards, which were under the supervision of the Minister of Public Service, Labour, and Social Welfare. During this period, the minister by way of Statutory Instruments used to gazette minimum wage notices in respect of any class of employees in any class or industry and would prohibit the payment of any wage less than such specified minimum wages, benefits or increments to such class of employees. This later changed during the 1990s when Employment Boards were turned into Employment Councils, the main reason being that the Ministry of Labour deemed it expedient to devolve powers on collective bargaining to specific constituencies. Ideally, the main objective was to empower Zimbabwean employer organisations and trade unions to manage their own affairs,” (Necbrick, 2018)

A labour union is an organisation of workers joined to protect their common interests and improve their working conditions. They are voluntary for workers to become a part of and not mandated by law. It serves as an intermediary between the employer and the employees. The main purpose is to give workers the power to negotiate more favourable working conditions through collective bargaining

The national employment council is mandated with the responsibility of advancing social justice and democracy in the workplace by ensuring adherence to fair labour practices. It is a bipartite labour body comprising of employer and employee organisations specifically dealing with labour-related issues in a specific industry or sector. All companies must pay a monthly fee to the NEC that best represents their type of business based on the industry or sector they operate in. Most of the time this fee is split in two between the employer and the employee. There is normally a maximum levy for NEC and the latter can be calculated using a percentage of Basic Salary or as a fixed amount for the Employee Grade or Company. One of the roles of the NEC is to create a platform for collective bargaining between trade unions and the employer’s association to negotiate the terms of employment pertaining to a specific industry. (Dzoma. G, 2020) states that the National Employment Council, in consultation with various unions for each sector, determines the minimum wages payable to employees of each sector. Workers are grouped into grades and minimum wage is assigned to that grade which ranges from A1 – C5.

It is stated by (Nhimba. N, 2018) that a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is produced from these negotiations. Furthermore, he states that these CBAs can then be registered with the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and transmitted into law through various statutory instruments and that “it is the duty of every NEC to assist members in the conclusion of Collective Bargaining Agreement – Section 62 (1) (a) of the Labour Act Chapter 28:01.” Additional roles of the NEC include labour inspection, labour education, dispute resolution/prevention, appeals, grievances and exemptions processing and lastly enforcement of labour laws/legislation.

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