By Own Correspondent

THE latest US Department of State’s Human Rights Report says Zimbabwe has severely limited the Right to Strike   on the back of calls for consistent reforms targeting the legal framework.

The document says during the review period, the law provided that a majority of employees had to agree to strike by voting in a secret ballot.

“Strike procedure requirements included a mandatory 30-day reconciliation period and referral to binding arbitration. Following an attempt to resolve a dispute regarding interests not already subject to agreement and a labour officer’s issuance of a certificate of no settlement. The party proposing a collective job action had to provide seven days’ written notice of intent to resort to the strike or labour action,” the report said

The regulations included specifying the grounds for the intended action, to call a strike legally and failure to notify authorities regarding a strike or public gathering was punishable with a prison term of one year.

Further the law prohibited employers from hiring permanent replacement workers in the event of a strike, but they were allowed to hire temporary workers.

“In July 2023, the president signed into law amendments that prescribed a sentence of up to five years in jail for organizing any strike deemed illegal, which the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) decried as criminalizing the right to strike,” the document added.