The law and rulings by labour officers and DAs

he said that “Subsection (5) (c) (ii) relates to a resolution that “(ii) the dispute of right or unfair labour practice must be resolved against any employer or other person in a specific manner by an order:

A. directing the employer or party concerned to cease or rectify the infringement or threatened infringement, as the case may be, including the payment of monies, where appropriate.

B. for damages for any loss or prospective loss caused either directly or indirectly, as a result of the infringement or threatened infringement, as the case may be; whereupon the provisions of subsection (5a) and (5b) shall apply.

The Judge went further and said, “The legislature seemed to want to facilitate a quicker and cheaper method of enabling the employee to enjoy his/her victory as it were. It is not concerned with a situation where the claim is dismissed.

This judgment was not appealed, I am advised, and in my reading of the Labour Act Chapter 28:01 the Judge merely stated what the Act says.

The implications of this judgment are many, one of them is that where the labour officer rules against employees, they would just have to walk away and accept their fate or apply to the Labour Court for a review, the labour officer or designated agent’s decision.

This approach is not yet very clear as many designated agents and labour officers have conflicting views on the way forward after the labour officer has ruled against employees. As a best practice issue, the answer lies in the organisations having their own in-house codes of conduct, which avoid the referral of matters to labour officers or designated agents.

The honest truth is that organisations that do not have codes of conduct up to this day cannot blame anyone when faced with such challenges given the fact that the right of employers and workers to craft and register in-house codes of conduct was given in 1990.

In conclusion, workers and employers need to observe the law as it stands and negotiate and register in-house codes of conduct so as to avoid involvement of labour officers and designated agents who end up taking matters through a complex and expensive route.

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: Email: stratwaysmail@yahoo.com