EMCOZ to hold mutual gains dialogue

THE Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) will hold a Mutual Gains Dialogue in Masvingo this week, focusing on areas that include the art of negotiation as well as mainstreaming gender in employment laws and codes of conduct.

This comes as wage negotiations between employers and workers have become protracted and characterised by deadlocks and threats of industrial action.

This has been prompted by the rapid depreciation of the local currency used to pay most workers in the country.

The Zimbabwe dollar is fast deteriorating and is now trading at more than $800 to the greenback on the parallel market, amplifying calls by workers to be paid in United States dollars, a demand most employers have scoffed at. Most employers say they have no capacity to pay foreign currency salaries.

Among the topics to be discussed at the dialogue, starting on Thursday and ending on Saturday, include building rapport and promoting trust, improving empathy in negotiation, principles of win-win negotiations and Convention 190 on Abolition of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) at the Workplace.

Emcoz executive director Nester Mukwehwa told NewsDay Business that the issue of GBV and its impact on the performance of workers will also be interrogated at the dialogue.

“GBV can impact productivity and job performance which in turn affects employee satisfaction and organisational success. Global surveys have found that 67% of women suffering from GBV have had their perpetrator come to the workplace. In addition, employees who suffer from GBV miss an average of 11 workdays per year,” she said.

“As such Emcoz will convene this two-day mutual gains and negotiating course to share skills required for every potential phase of a negotiation resulting in a higher level of self-confidence and more win business agreements.”

Mukwehwa added that negotiation in business was pivotal for success.

“Negotiation is part and parcel of what we do almost daily,” she pointed out.

“From a business perspective, negotiation is key to success, Negotiators ought to bring knowledge, tools and techniques to the negotiation table in order to negotiate and bargain for mutual gain.”-neewsday