Zimbabwe - Minimum Wages - 2012

July 2012

Labour Act 1985, incorporating Acts 16/1985, 12/1992, 20/1994 (s. 19), 22/2001 (s. 4), 17/2002 and 7/2005 as reissued 1 February 2006 and published at www.kubatana.net.

Labour Relations (Specification of Minimum Wages) (Amendment) Notice 2006 (No. 11) Statutory Instrument 98 of 2006. Published in the Zimbabwe Government Gazette 28 April 2006 and republished at www.kubatana.net

’Employee’ means any person who performs work or services for another person for remuneration or reward on such terms and conditions as agreed upon by the parties or as provided for in this Act, and includes a person performing work or services for another person:
(a) in circumstances where, even if the person performing the work or services supplies his own tools or works under flexible conditions of service, the hirer provides the substantial investment in or assumes the substantial risk of the undertaking; or
(b) in any other circumstances that more closely resemble the relationship between an employee and employer than that between an independent contractor and hirer of services.

’Employer’ means any person whatsoever who employs or provides work for another person and remunerates or expressly or tacitly undertakes to remunerate him, and includes:
(a) the manager, agent or representative of such person who is in charge or control of the work upon which such other person is employed; and
(b) the judicial manager of such person appointed in terms of the Companies Act;
(c) the liquidator or trustee of the insolvent estate of such person, if authorised to carry on the business of such person by:
(i) the creditors; or
(ii) in the absence of any instructions given by the creditors, the Master of the High Court;
(d) the executor of the deceased estate of such person, if authorised to carry on the business of such person by the Master of the High Court;
(e) the curator of such person who is a patient as defined in the Mental Health Act, if authorised to carry on the business of such person in terms of section 88 of that Act.

The term ’wage’ is not defined by the Labour Act.

The term ’minimum wage’ is not defined by the Labour Act. However, the term ’minimum wage notice’ is defined as a notice issued in terms of section 20 of that Act.

The Minister may, by statutory instrument, in respect of any class of employees in any undertaking or industry:
(i) specify the minimum wage and benefits in respect of such class of employees;
(ii) require employers to grant or negotiate increments on annual income of such minimum amount or percentage as he may specify;
and prohibit the payment of less than such specified minimum wage, benefits or increments to such class of employees.

The Minister may, either on his or her own initiative or on the recommendation of any employer or employee of any association representing employers or employees, appoint advisory councils
consisting of such persons as the Minister may deem fit, to investigate and make recommendations to him or her, in connection with wages, salaries or benefits, on the fixing of minimum wages and benefits for employees or any other matters to which minimum wage notices may relate.

No statutory provision establishing criteria by which the Minister shall determine the minimum wage rates identified.

The Minister may make minimum wage regulations in relation to any class of employees in any undertaking or industry.

The 2006 Notice states that the minimum wage rate applies to all employees whose remuneration is not fixed by or in terms of any agreement, determination or regulations made under the Act.

The Labour Act, and therefore any order made under it, does not apply to or in respect of:
(a) members of the public service; or
(b) members of a disciplined force of the State; or
(c) members of any disciplined force of a foreign State who are in Zimbabwe under any agreement concluded between the Government and the Government of that foreign State; or
(d) such other employees of the State as the President may designate by statutory instrument.

$6 870 000,00 per month

The last identified wage update was in 2006.

Remuneration payable in money shall not be paid to an employee by way of promissory notes, vouchers, coupons or in any form other than legal tender.

Remuneration may be payable in kind only in industries or occupations where such payment is customary, and shall be subject to the following conditions:
(a) any such payment shall be appropriate for the personal use and benefit of the employee and the employee’s family;
(b) the value attributed to such payment shall be fair and reasonable;
(c) equipment or clothing required to protect the health and safety of the employee shall not be computed as part of the remuneration of the employee;
(d) no payment shall be made in the form of liquor or drugs;
(e) remuneration in kind shall not substitute entirely for remuneration in money.

Subject to any collective bargaining agreement, wages shall be paid at regular intervals on working days at or near the workplace.

No relevant provisions identified.

A labour officer may:
(a) without previous notice enter upon any premises in which any person is being employed; and
(b) question, in respect of matters relating to wages, hours or conditions of work and either apart from or in the presence of others, any person who is or has been upon or in any premises in which any person is being employed; and
(c) require from any person who is or has been upon or in any premises in which any person is being employed the production then and there, or at a time and place fixed by the labour officer, of all relevant books and documents which are or have been upon or in the premises or in the possession or custody or under the control of any employer by whom the premises are occupied or used, or of any employee of that employer; and
(d) at any time and at any place require from any person who has the possession or custody or control of any relevant book or document relating to the business of any person who is or was an employer, the production then and there, or at a time and place fixed by the labour officer, of that book or document; and
(e) examine and make extracts from and copies of all books and documents produced to or examined by him, and may require an explanation of any entries in any such books or documents; and
(f) seize any such books or documents as he believes on reasonable grounds may afford evidence of any offence under this Act.

Any employer who pays an employee a wage which is lower than that to fair labour specified for such employee by law or by agreement made under the Labour Act shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level seven (or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both such fine and such imprisonment).