Worker's Committee: Strategic Guidelines for workplace harmony and productivity

The Workers Committee has evolved from being a confrontational institution to a business partner over the years. However there still exist some gaps in the way some Workers Committees behave in some organisations. This however does not erode the fact that the Workers Committee remains an important institution in corporate productivity and as well as management of industrial relations. As an institution the Workers Committee has to appreciate that the purpose of setting up a business is to get a return on investment and to get that return on investment the social partnership has to be healthy.

In the social partnership Worker leaders must appreciate that management is obligated to manage and employees are obligated to render a service (common law duty to provide service). This will ensure effective and efficient joint implementation and execution of the corporate strategy.

A workers committee is essentially a committee created and elected by the workers to represent themselves in discussions/negotiations with members of management. A Workers Committee consists entirely of employees and does not include any management representatives unless it is solely a managerial workers committee. For the smooth administration and running of its mandate it is desirable that the Workers Committee should have its own constitution.

When elections for the Workers Committee are being conducted a Labour Officer/Designated Agent and Trade Union representative are mandated to facilitate. To this end employers are obliged to allow Trade Union representatives, Labour Officer or Designated Agent access to employees at the work place during working hours for the purpose of advising and educating employees on employment law or conducting of workers committee elections. This should however be well-coordinated to ensure that flow of work is not compromised and as such prior communication is required (See s23 (2) of the Labour Act Cap 28.01)

Statutory Instrument 372 of 1985 – Labour Relations (Workers Committees) (General) Regulations provides that the Workers Committee shall consist of not less than three and not more than fifteen members who shall be representative of the different sections of the undertaking concerned. Further is it provided that members of the workers committee shall from amongst themselves elect:- a Chairman who shall be responsible for presiding over all meetings, a Secretary who shall be responsible for taking minutes in a meeting and for keeping any records that the chairman may require to be kept.

The term of office of a Workers Committee shall be two years after which new elections or appointments will have to take place. A member of a workers committee shall be eligible for re-appointment or re-election. On the death of, or vacation of office by a member, the workers shall appoint or elect a person to fill the vacancy: Provided that if the workers committee would have continued to exist for less than three months, the employees need not appoint or elect a person to fill the vacancy.

Section 23 Labour Act cap 28.01 details the formation of the Workers Committee and the functions are clearly spelt out on Section 24. Section 24 is instructive in that it says;

(1) A workers committee shall-

(a) subject to this Act, represent the employees concerned in any matter affecting their rights and interests; and

(b) be entitled to negotiate with the employer concerned a collective bargaining agreement relating to the terms and conditions of employment of the employees concerned; and

(c) subject to Part XIII, be entitled to recommend collective job action to the employees concerned; and

(d) where a works council is or is to be constituted at any workplace, elect some of its members to represent employees on the works council.

The aforementioned roles require that the Workers Committee does not see it as smart to disagree with management on matters affecting the enterprise. The history of Workers Committees is infested with cases where Workers Committees always put on boxing gloves to the detriment of their constituency as well as the organisation. Confrontational, winner-take-all mentality makes workplaces undisciplined and lowers return on investment as a lot of time will be spent in trying to resolve unnecessary conflicts which in most cases manifest in acts of misconduct.

I have seen a disturbing trend in organisations where workers sort of choose the most vocal and outspoken to represent them. This in most cases is fatal. Most of this kind of representatives are not receptive to being educated and cannot interpret labour laws for the benefit of their constituency, thus rendering the quality of their guidance questionable. The quality of representation must not be overlooked as some the Workers Committee representatives will sit in the Works Council. The business of the Works Council as spelt out on Section 25A of the Labour Act will be severely compromised as the meeting will be turned into a battlefield where the Workers shoot down proposals from the management side. Worker leaders need to appreciate concepts such as Revenues, Operating Costs, Profit and Loss, Capacity utilisation so that they can engage in productive engagement with management.

The other interesting observation on the part of Workers Committees is their handling of disciplinary cases. When an employee has committed an offence and is brought to a disciplinary hearing, most worker representatives wrongly believe that their duty is to defend the accused employee even on a straightforward case. Instead of looking at facts and evidence in support of the transaction in issue there is a tendency to find insubstantial reasons to muddle and upset the disciplinary process. This is not the representation that the law advocate for. The case of Zesa v Mare SC43-05 is instructive where it was stated that-:

“In my view members of the Workers’ Committee are not a law unto themselves…..I accept that a member of the Workers’ Committee has a duty to defend workers’ rights.  In defending the rights of the workers a member of the Workers’ Committee is enjoined to observe due process.  It is lawful for the employer to investigate any alleged misconduct of its employees and after such investigation to institute disciplinary proceedings.  That is due process.  It was not lawful for the respondent or any member of the Workers’ Committee to forcefully obstruct the lawful investigation into an employee’s misconduct.  The investigation should have been allowed to proceed without obstruction.  It was open to the respondent to defend the worker charged with misconduct at the Disciplinary Hearing”

In conclusion, overzealous and ill-informed worker representatives who cannot even differentiate a dispute of right and a dispute of interest have no strategic relevance in the modern day workplace. Workers committees must be trained in labour laws, leadership skills and basic business concepts to ensure they effectively represent their constituency. Employers must play their part and invest in the training of the Workers Committee.

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