ZCTU blasts MDC-T policy document

THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has blasted MDC-T's Agenda for Real Transformation (Art) policy document launched last weekend as anti-workers and pro-capital as it seeks to make it easier for employees to be dismissed and privatise essential services like electricity supply if it wins general elections expected later this year.

In its policy document the MDC-T, formerly a close ally of trade unions, incorporates policies deemed anti-workers, which include free-market enterprises, deregulation of the labour sector and accelerated privatisation of public utilities in an effort to streamline government involvement in the market.

ZCTU secretary general Japhet Moyo said the unions are dismayed by the proposed policies which would create a worse scenario than is obtaining.

"For the record, trade unions would never allow flexibility where an employee is dismissed for an act outside his or her contract environment," Moyo said.

"If one is convicted of beating a spouse at home then the employer is empowered to dismiss you; a brawl in a bar will get you fired if convicted. These proposed provisions are worse than what is available now."

The MDC-T proposes to privatise and commercialise the 72 state-owned enterprises, which include the Cold Storage Commission, Arda and Air Zimbabwe.

"It (CSC) will be sold to the private sector as a going concern under agreed arrangements that will allow the state to gradually recover its investment," the document reads.