The government of Zimbabwe has been called upon to set up an independent dispute resolution body that will deal with workplace disputes.

The call was made by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU Legal Advisor, Zakeo Mtimtema in Harare recently during a Labor Amendment Act No 5/2015 Awareness workshop attended by paralegals from the labour body's affiliate unions.

Mtimtema said the government should consider resolution mechanisms along the lines of  South Africa's CCMA, saying the current situation in the country was not tenable as the Labour Court was not empowered to enforce its own decisions.

"There is need to streamline ministerial powers in the collective bargaining process because currently a Collective Bargaining Agreement must be registered first for it to have force of law and that process is against ILO Convention 98 on Collective Bargaining," he said.

Mtimtema said because the courts were ruling in their favour, employers were deliberately not paying workers taking all disputes to the courts as a way of buying time.

"Matters involving amounts below $10 000 are dealt with at the Magistrates Court and when you go there you don't just simply register as you have to join the queue and the employer is given the opportunity to oppose registration of the award. It is for this reason that the Labour Court has to enforce its own decisions just as the Magistrates court," he said.

Mtimtema said a number of provisions in the amended labour legislation should be repealed as they infringed on the rights of workers.

He said while the Tripartite Negotiating Forum agreed on the need to review the amendment, they were deadlocked on the implementation, with labour against the piecemeal reforms and calling for a complete overhaul of the labour legislation.