NEC councillors and fiduciary duty

MANY National Employment Council (NEC) councillors throw fiduciary duty out of the window in the interest of political expedience at the expense of the parties they represent.

For NEC councillors to value their duty for the parties they represent, there is need for induction training of all new councillors and where councillors come in and go at different times, an induction handbook could be useful.

Trade unions that second members to the NEC and employers’ associations that do the same have to clearly educate their representatives on the objects of the employer association and the trade union. Further, the representatives should always act in the interest of the parties they represent.

The problem with trade unions and employers’ associations is that once people are seconded to the NEC, they are left to their own devices and as a result, decisions that are disastrous for both employers and employees in the long term are made. Examples of such decisions are those that relate to fixed-term contract employees being permanent after a specified period of time, which have an unintended consequence of having workers terminated from employment before they clock the required number of fixed-term contract to make them permanent.

This has resulted in many workers who would have made careers in organisations losing that opportunity and on the employer’s side, employers frequently throw out experience at the expense of productivity. Had those who negotiate such agreement thought through the implications and considered the interests of their members, they would have worked on means of managing fixed-term contract problems in a manner that is comfortable to both employers and workers.

Conduct as given in the above example clearly compromises the duty to care and duty to loyalty and in my opinion, employers and trade unionists who sign such agreements could legally be challenged in terms of their fiduciary duty as they put short term personal interest ahead of those they represent, for example, employer representatives should have known that placing employees on permanence for a number of employers is high risk as employers, given the state of the economy, will from time to time shed and pick labour.

The unions on the other side, should have known that many employers cannot guarantee permanent jobs but can continuously re-engage the workers as and when work is available but what has happened pushes many workers out of employment.

I am not saying fixed-term contracts have no dark side but I am saying their regulation should have at least had wide consultation with the people they represent as it was their fiduciary duty to do so.

There are other areas of fiduciary duty such as living by the NEC constitution while balancing with principals’ constitution.

In conclusion, all NEC councillors have to live by not only the written constitution but also the spirit of the constitution and also have to represent the spirit of the constitution and interest of their principals.-chronicle.cl.zw