The Parliamentary Legal Committee on Tuesday issued an adverse report on the Labour Amendment Bill, which was ignored by the National Assembly as it passed the proposed law. Below is a full report of the committee:
In pursuit of its constitutional mandate as provided for in Section 152(3)(a) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Parliamentary Legal Committee met on August 18, 2015 at 1130hrs to consider the Labour Amendment Bill [H.B. 7, 2015].
After deliberations, the committee resolved that an adverse report be issued in respect of the Bill. In compliance with Standing Order 32 (3), members of the committee, legally qualified and as envisaged by section 152(2) of the Constitution, unanimously agreed and present were: Honourables Fortune Chasi (Zanu PF), Jonathan Samukange (Zanu PF) and Jessie Majome (MDC-T) that the Bill contained provisions that, if enacted would violate the Constitution.
The adverse report was issued due to the following considerations:
Clause 18 (Transitional Provision) The clause provides for the retrospective application of Section 12 of the Act to every employee whose services were terminated on three months’ notice on or after July 17.
The committee unanimously agreed that the clause violates Section 3 (2) (e) of the Constitution regarding the separation of powers in that the judgment made by the Judiciary was correct at law and in seeking to nullify that by an insertion of the retrospective clause, Parliament will have violated the principle of separation of powers.
Additionally, since the employers acted from the correct position at law, and having vested rights in terms of the Act, applying the retrospective provisions in the clause would be punitive on the employer and violates Section 56 of the Constitution relating to equal protection of the law.
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Moreover, in the case of Walls vs Walls 1996 (2) ZLR 117, it was held that although Parliament has the power to legislate retrospectively, however, as much as possible, legislation should not be made in a manner which interferes with accrued rights.
In this regard, the right accrued in this case relates to the vested rights of the employer to terminate on notice.
Due to the aforesaid, the committee resolved on a majority of 4:0 to issue an adverse report on the Bill.
