11 Oct 2025
(SALUTATIONS)
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is once again pleased to join the rest of the world in commemorating the World Day for Decent Work, a day that is commemorated on October 7 every year. Since 2008, millions of people around the
world have taken part in various events demanding that decent work be placed at the centre of government action for economic growth and building a new global economy that puts people first.
Indeed, Decent Work sums up the all the aspirations of the working people, it is all the good things that we desire as workers. Decent Work translates into a decent life, equality, freedom and liberty. As usual, the ZCTU commemorations are guided by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) global thrust for the year ahead. This year the ITUC is commemorating WDDW under the theme "For Democracy that Delivers Decent Work". This theme was designed to remind global governance structures that democracy and equality must translate to decent work for the benefit of the majority who are poor and vulnerable.
The ITUC is campaigning for political systems and governments to actively work for the benefit of working people, not just a select few. It is also campaigning against state and corporate capture by powerful corporations and billionaires who, through
anti-union practices, are undermining democracy, fuelling conflict, and driving down wages. Does this ring a bell to our domestic situation?
The ITUC theme is not only prophetic of our situation, it is a revelation and a call to action. Zimbabwean workers need to resist the rising influences of Mbingas, cartels and the menacing foreign investors abusing workers with impunity. The decent work agenda is premised on a comprehensive framework promoting fair and productive employment conditions for everyone, built on four strategic pillars: employment creation, rights at work, social protection, and social dialogue.
The foundation of these pillars has been undermined in Zimbabwe. Decent work is now a privileged discretion of the employer. We practically do not have the right to strike, which is the workers’ last line of defence.
The four pillars have been decimated.
Employment Creation: Our environment is no longer supporting clean investment entrepreneurship that ensures everyone has access to job opportunities.
Rights at Work: Guarantees that fundamental principles and rights are respected, ensuring benefits, fair compensation, and protection from exploitation have been undermined in view of recent court judgments.
Social Protection: this pillar Involves providing security and social protection for families, including compensation for illness or injury.
Social Dialogue: While social dialogue platforms have been established engagements have not been fruitful. Government and business have connived to negotiate in bad faith in an effort to bash unions and render them ineffective.
Just like the rest of the world, we are demanding a new social contract that prioritizes people and the planet to tackle rising inequality, social fragmentation, and conflict. Wages remain subdued across the world and the situation is even dire for local workers whose average earnings are below USD250-00 per month when the poverty datum line is well over USD500-00 per month. Due to high unemployment those at work are forced to accept peanuts and sacrifice their rights and interests.
As ZCTU we are taking this opportunity to rally workers towards resisting exploitation from employers and demanding that government implements policies and laws that fully protects workers and citizens. It is common knowledge that our
government is winning and dinning with those who have money and cartels while ignoring calls for decent work which have a ripple effect of uplifting everyone.
Workers have been reduced to beggars to fly by night Mbingas as wages which are the basis for sustainable and equitable economies have been kept at very low levels that families are struggling to survive. Employers are refusing to share fortunes with workers who produce the goods and provide the services that generate wealth, and with corporate tax avoidance and evasion at record highs, the public sector is also starved of the resources it needs to ensure decent levels of pay.
We repeat our call for the Government of Zimbabwe to act on the Chinese investors who are repeatedly taking the law into their hands. Workers at various Chinese firms are in distress. They are being harassed, beaten up, underpaid and humiliated. This is a clarion call for action. Yes, we might be facing an economic implosion, but we are not that desperate for such investments from the Chinese. We would rather keep our resources for the future generation than what is currently happening.
When a nation is under siege from such investors, the government has a duty to intervene to save workers. Our role as unions is to push and demand that the government intervenes to save workers and the majority. For us the starting point has been the demand for PDL linked minimum wages. This is a demand that we have sustained for decades and we will continue to demand for a legislated minimum wage through the TNF to cushion the lowest paid worker. As we are grappling with wage repression, prices of energy, food and other essential goods and services are spiralling beyond the reach of many condemning thousands into working poverty.
It is important that we forge alliances with like-minded and supportive organisations in fighting against wage inequality, sub-minimum wages, and exploitative pay rates and discrimination. Promoting decent work is a shared responsibility; it incorporates
the needs and perspective of the governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations. On this note government and business have no option but to cooperate on the agenda because Decent work is a right.
While we appreciate the strides made in crafting and implementing the Zimbabwe Decent Work Country programmes and the platforms they have created we are calling for holistic implementation of its tenets. This program which was developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Zimbabwe's tripartite partners aligns with the country's national development strategies and the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. It has its positives which include
Improved Labour Administration and Social Protection:,
Focus on Vulnerable Groups:
Support for Skills Development:
Formalization of Key Sectors:
However, there are observable negatives which we think if we confront them holistically and in good faith we can turn lemons into lemonade. We have the following conditions to address for us to achieve holistic decent work standards for our constituency. They include:-
A Difficult Economic Environment:
Shrinking Formal Employment:
Fragmentation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET):
Limited Social Insurance Portability:
Funding Limitations:
High Informality:
Lastly let me end by saying the ZCTU is committed to the issues of Decent Work, and we will continue to work together with our membership and affiliates to make sure we achieve Decent Work. It is only through solid unity that we can achieve decent work. Our common purpose to fight the system and its anti-worker enablers is our only hope and if we fail decent work will remain a myth for the Zimbabwean worker.
United we stand and divided we fall.
I thank you
