A case of the public sector in Zimbabwe

In this week’s article, Taurai Mereki analyses the state of collective bargaining in the public sector in Zimbabwe. Using different examples of state-owned enterprises, Mereki argues that while collective bargaining is provided for in labour legislation, certain contradictory factors such as the Labour Minister’s powers to register (or not) Collective Bargaining Agreements leads to restrictions to workers’ bargaining power. Taurai Mereki is the Vice President of the Communication and Allied Services Workers Union of Zimbabwe. He is also an alumnus of the Global Labour University programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. 

Please click here to read the article attached or on our blog: http://column.global-labour-university.org/

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*Announcements*

IIPPE conference: The International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE) is accepting abstracts for its Fourth International Conference in Political Economy on 9-11 July 2013. The theme for next year’s conference is “Political Economy, Activism and Alternative Economic Strategies”. The conference will be held at the International Institute for Social Studies at The Hague. The deadline for abstract submissions is 15 February 2013. For more details please visit the following link: http://www.iippe.org/wiki/Fourth_International_Conference_in_Political_Economy

ENGAGE programme:The Global Labour University invites trade unionists to apply for its ENGAGE programme. The 6-month program focuses on the challenges of labour policies and globalisation, particularly wage policies, international labour standards, corporate campaigns and strategic corporate research. The course consists of a 3-month university program and a 10-week practical implementation phase to develop practical policy initiatives. It offers trade unionists  an opportunity to engage with an international group of students and get new insights on trade union strategies to meet the challenges of globalisation. The course starts on 15 May 2013. The deadline for applications is the 15  December 2012. For application details and forms see http://www.global-labour-university.org/216.html. A number of scholarships are offered by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).