19/10/2026
BELATED : Remarks for World Day for Decent Work
Date: 7 October 2026
Theme: RIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY: YOUNG WORKERS
ORGANISING FOR THE FUTURE
Comrades, fellow workers, today, as Zimbabwe joins millions of working people across the world to mark World Day for Decent Work, we do not gather merely to mark a date on the calendar.
We gather to audit our reality, to renew our struggle, and to reclaim our fundamental human rights. Decent work is not a philanthropic gift from employers or government. It is an inalienable constitutional right enshrined in Section 65 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
To us decent work means a living wage paid in a stable currency, safe workplaces, protected and guaranteed social security, and the absolute freedom to organize, bargain, and strike without fear of state or corporate victimisation.
This year’s global theme, “Right for Democracy: Young Workers Organising for the Future” speaks directly to the existential crisis facing Zimbabwe’s labour force today.
Let us be boldly honest about the severe obstacles confronting Zimbabwean workers from attaining decent work:
Weak enforcement of labour laws.
Poor wages and remunerations.
Decoupled Social Protection and Pension Value Loss.
Mass Informalisation and Precarious Employment.
Unemployment and inadequate job creation.
Severe Real-Wage Erosion and Currency Distortions.
Systemic Attacks on Freedom of Association.
Substandard Health and Safety Infrastructure.
As we reflect on these challenges, we must also look inward and evaluate the state of our labour movement. The labour movement in Zimbabwe stands at a strategic defining moment.
Historical economic shocks, factory closures, and informalisation
have eroded traditional industrial union membership bases. We face internal fragmentation, sustainability constraints, and an outdated organizational framework that historically catered primarily to formal shop floors while leaving informal workers,
platform workers, and rural labourers on the periphery.
On foreign investors who are fuelling precarious work our thrust is that we must be at the centre of demanding that government must only approve investments that respects workers, strengthens collective bargaining, creates secure employment and contributes to social justice – not investment attracted by cheap and vulnerable
labour.
Furthermore, young workers have often felt alienated from formal trade union governance. Tokenistic representation is no longer acceptable. If the trade union movement does not adapt to organize where workers actually are, it risks becoming obsolete. We must rebuild internal union democracy, restore ideological clarity, and build an inclusive, modern, and militant movement that unites formal, informal, and platform workers under one banner.
As we approach the 10th Elective ZCTU National Elective Congress, the working class must demand that this gathering is not reduced to mere leadership contests. It must be a transformative congress of strategy and action.
The upcoming Congress must decisively resolve to:
1. Launch a Mass Organizing Drive: Formally integrate informal worker associations and digital platform workers into ZCTU affiliate structures, guaranteeing them collective bargaining support, legal aid, and social protection frameworks.
2. Establish a Defence Fund for Victimised Workers: Build a sustainable national solidarity fund to defend union organizers, shop stewards, and workers facing legal persecution, unlawful dismissals, or state harassment.
3. Demand Constitutional Living Wage Indexation: Formulate a unified national bargaining strategy that mandates all National Employment Councils (NECs) to index minimum wages directly to the Poverty Datum Line in value-preserving currency.
The world of work is transforming rapidly, and Zimbabwean workers cannot be left behind. The Future of Work is already here, driven by artificial intelligence, digital gig platforms, climate change, and energy transitions.
Digital and Platform Work: The gig economy must not become a code word for legal tax evasion and worker exploitation. Platform companies operating in Zimbabwe must recognize workers rights to organize, guarantee fair algorithms, and contribute to social security schemes.
Just Transition for Climate and Energy: As the world moves towards green energy, Zimbabwean workers in coal, mining, agriculture, and manufacturing must not pay the price of climate adaptation with their livelihoods. We demand a Just Transition that invests in green jobs, worker retraining, and sustainable
industrialization.
Skills Modernization: We demand state and employer-funded continuous learning programs to equip young workers with the technological and technical competencies required in the modern global economy.
To the Young Workers of Zimbabwe: Democracy is not merely dropping a ballot into a box every five years; it is the daily exercise of voice, dignity, and power on the shop floor, in the vending zone, and on the digital platform. You are not just the future of the ZCTU; you are its immediate strength.
Organize every workplace, every gig platform, and every informal cluster!
Demand living wages, occupational safety, and democratic representation!
Rebuild a united, independent, and fearless labour movement!
When young workers organize, they do not just secure a job—they defend democracy itself.
Finally, for trade unions, the strategic shift towards attaining decent work should be should be from negotiating only wages to negotiating the entire decent-work package. Unions can enforce decent-work standards through a combination of collective bargaining, workplace monitoring, legal enforcement, worker organisation and social dialogue. The key is to move from simply responding to violations after they occur to building systems that prevent violations and make employers accountable.
The most effective approach is to create a chain: Organise → Educate → Monitor→ Negotiate → Document → Enforce → Escalate → Reform policy.
That is how unions may move from defending workers one dispute at a time to creating a culture where employers and government would know that decent-work standards will actually be monitored and enforced.
I thank you.
SHINGA MUSHANDI SHINGA, QINA SISEBENZI QINA
