Can you now appeal to a labour officer?
For any person who has been involved in employee disciplinary proceedings, it has been common cause for years that where the disciplinary proceedings were to be conducted in terms of an employment code of conduct, labour officers were prohibited by law to handle the same. However, with the promulgation of the Labour Amendment Act 2023, the position of the law has changed and it is imperative that you familiarise with the changes, as is highlighted below.
The old law as provided for under Section 101 (5) of the Labour Act [Chapter 28:01] provided that where an employee was liable to disciplinary proceedings in terms of an employment code, labour officers had no jurisdiction to handle the dispute. The aforementioned provision reads:
‘Notwithstanding this Part, but subject to subsection (6), no labour officer shall intervene in any dispute or matter which is or is liable to be the subject of proceedings under an employment code, nor shall he intervene in any such proceedings.’
However, as per the Labour Amendment Act 2023, any party to the dispute now has an automatic right to appeal to a labour officer at the conclusion of the disciplinary proceedings, in the event that they are not satisfied with the outcome. This is in terms of a new proviso to Section 101 (5) which adds the following:
“Provided that at the conclusion of such proceedings and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in an employment code, at the instance of any party aggrieved by those proceedings may appeal to a labour officer within 30 days of the conclusion of the proceedings whereupon the labour officer shall attempt to conciliate the dispute in terms of section 93 or exercise any other power provided for in that section.”
As can be obtained from the above, labour officers have been given authority to exercise the powers conferred to them by Section 93 of the Labour Act in the aforementioned circumstances. These powers involve attempting to conciliate the dispute, whereby if the labour officer is successful and issues out a certificate of settlement, the same can then be registered with the relevant court and thus be enforceable as a civil judgement of that court.
However, in the event that the labour officer does not succeed in conciliating the dispute, they will then proceed to issue out a certificate of no settlement, at which point they will then refer the matter to compulsory or voluntary arbitration as the case may be.
For more information relating to employment matters, kindly contact us on info@smarthrsolutions.co.zw or +263787658430.
Disclaimer: Take note that the above is our take on the law and should not be taken as the defacto position of the law.
