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  1. Overview: Zimbabwe
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Global HR Compliance in Zimbabwe

The war for global talent has never been tougher. Attracting and keeping sought-after international employees requires knowledge. Whether your company is already engaging or planning to engage global workforce in Zimbabwe, you need to trust that your operations are executed without flaw and without any unnecessary risks.

Businesses of all sizes face a devastating lack of information and support on global employment, taxation, and immigration in Zimbabwe. There’s a common and significant gap between what’s required to be 100% compliant and what most organizations actually have at their disposal.

Acumen International can fill the gap in fragmented Global HR Compliance knowledge

We are experts in global workforce employment in Zimbabwe, and our goal is to become your single provider. Instead of working with numerous local staffing agencies and legal advisors, Acumen International can solve your global business challenges and save you time, costs, and resources.

We act as an information service for corporate clients, agencies, and independent contractors and freelancers. Our Global HR Compliance service in Zimbabwe will help you:

  1. Navigate legislation and local nuances of Zimbabwe. You need to know what is acceptable and what can expose you to employment litigation as well as employee / independent contractor misclassification risk in Zimbabwe.
  2. Avoid areas of possible risk. Certain areas and activities can create unnecessary risk, such as employer-employee relations. We can help you with worker classification, payroll and tax calculations, and social cost contributions.
  3. Handle currency exchanges and local invoicing in Zimbabwe. We save you time and effort, freeing you from having to understand complicated regulations and tax calculations written in the local language and subject to frequent changes.
  4. Create employment contracts and handle compliant engagements. Our objective is to assist you with international HR compliance issues and offer you the best payment and taxation options in Zimbabwe.
  5. Manage expatriate immigration and visa support nuances in Zimbabwe. Acumen International provides information about the best scenarios of expat immigration and employment.
  6. Handle global recruitment issues. We can help you select the person and then employ him with our help. We advise you on local employment laws and implied compliance risks to determine the most cost-effective, compliant, and risk-free solution for you.
  7. Withdraw from the region in the least risky and most cost-effective way. If you choose to do so, we can help you withdraw from the region as simply as possible.

Our team of English-speaking professionals frees you from working through language nuances. Acumen International works 24/7 and can assist you whenever you need, regardless of time zones. Our goal is to create tailored labor solutions for you that are managed legally and in full compliance with the local employment laws.

With our knowledge and deep understanding of local nuances, you easily satisfy your need for skilled professionals in your global industry. With our qualified local partners, you can trust that your global workforce satisfies all local tax, social security, and immigration requirements in Zimbabwe.

Business management in modern conditions requires the adoption of complex decisions in real time. Tough competition forces managers to actively use all the technological capabilities available today, to attract more skilled labor force, without delay, to innovate. In order to provide the necessary competitive advantages and realize the conceived strategy in such conditions, the company often requires a deeper specialization in its key area of activity.

Any enterprise could not function properly without a thorough learning of the labor legislation of the country in which it carries out business. If the company does not develop internal regulations in accordance with the local legislation of Zimbabwe, then it will inevitably face a number of problems. Any conflicts that employees initiate in such a situation will be resolved not in favor of the company.

Acumen International has professional expertise in global workforce employment in Zimbabwe, and our goal is to support daily operations related to personnel, offering integrated solutions for efficient activity of the enterprise and simultaneous saving of time and costs.

Discover the ways of hiring and firing an employee in Zimbabwe below

Hiring and Firing Workforce in Zimbabwe Guide

# Employment contracts

A contract of employment is an agreement between an employer and employee which is enforceable by law. Regardless of the type, whether it is a contract without limit of time, fixed term contract, casual contract or seasonal contract, a contract of employment comes into being when an employee agrees to work for an employer in return for pay. Employment contracts that I have come across do consist of a mixture of express and implied terms. The distinction between the two terms is that express terms are those which are actually stated in writing or given verbally and are not restricted to written employment contracts but can include a number of other documents, such as a company policy document. Express terms must meet any minimum legal standards.

Most workers in Zimbabwe are on Fixed Term Contracts. According to Labour Law, fixed term contracts expire at the end of the term specified. Employment maybe terminated by mutual agreement. Read more on Mywage Zimbabwe.

Most workers in Zimbabwe are on fixed term contracts. According to labour law, fixed term contracts expire at the end of the term specified. Employment maybe terminated by mutual agreement.
However, in some cases employees have been fixed term contract workers for 10-16 years. This is unfair labour practice as workers do not enjoy the job security and benefits that come with a permanent job in a company.

# Minimum (Statutory) Employment Rules and Regulations in Zimbabwe

# Hours of work:
In Zimbabwe, every Collective Bargain Agreement provides for minimum hours of work. The model Collective Bargaining Agreement recommends a minimum of eight hours per day, subject to the nature of the work, and 40 hours per week. This could be up to a maximum of ten hours a day.

No employee shall be required to work continuously for more than five hours without being given a paid rest period of not less than an aggregate of one hour. Breastfeeding mothers shall be afforded two hours each day for breastfeeding for a period of 12 months, and one hour thereafter for a period of six months.

# Probation period:
Under common law, the period and the number of times that an employee may be on probation are open-ended. The parties may terminate the contract before or on the expiration of such period. However, to avoid employers’ abusing employees, the conditions of probationary employees are now regulated under the Act.25 This requires that such a contract should be in writing for a single non-renewable period of not more than one week in the case of casual or seasonal work or three months in other cases. Notice of termination is one week in the case of casual or seasonal work or two weeks in other cases.

# Annual leave:
The Labour Act provides paid annual leave on completion of one year of service with an employer. An employee is entitled to vacation leave at the rate of one twelfth (30 calendar days; 22 working days) of his qualifying service in each year of employment, unless more favourable provisions are provided in employment contract or collective agreement.

Vacation leaves provided by the Labour Act are paid, no further specification related to pay level is provided by the law.

Annual leave are subject to a maximum accrual of ninety days’ paid vacation leave only if an employee is granted a portion of the total vacation leave which may have accrued to him/her. The employee may be granted the remaining portion at a later date, together with any further vacation leave which may have accrued to him at that date, without forfeiting any such accrued leave.

All Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays falling within a period of vacation leave are counted as part of vacation leave. An employee who becomes ill or is injured during a period of vacation leave may cancel his.

Vacation leaves and applies for sick leave. Where an employee has no vacation leaveAccrued, he may be granted vacation leave withoutPay.

# Parental leave:
Employees need at least one year of service to qualify for paid maternity leave. Such leave may only be granted upon production of a medical certificate. It may only be granted three times for the same employer and only once during a 24 month period calculated from the day previous leave was granted.

No specific paternity leave entitlements are found in the labour code. However, special leave entitlements as identified under section 14B may be used. Employees may request for up to 12 calendar days special leave for personal reasons that affect their immediate family (death of a spouse, parent, child, legal dependent or on any other justifiable compassionate ground).

# Sick leave:
Sick leave shall be granted to an employee who is prevented from attending to her/his duties because he or she is ill or injured or is undergoing medical treatment which was not occasioned by her/his failure to take reasonable precautions.

During any one year period of service, an employee, upon request and supported by a certificate signed by a registered medical practitioner, shall be granted up to 90 days sick leave on full pay.

If, during one year period of service, the employee has used up the maximum period of sick leave on full pay, an employer shall, at the request of the employee supported by a certificate signed by a registered medical practitioner, grant a further period of up to 90 days sick leave on half pay.

If, during any one year period of service, the period of sick leave exceeds 90 days sick leave on full pay and 180 days sick leave on full and half pay, the employer may terminate the employment of the employee concerned.

An employee who so wishes may be granted accrued vacation leave instead of sick leave on half pay or without pay.

# Overtime:
In accordance with the Labour Act, Minister for Labour may issue regulations regarding overtime, shift work and night work. Normal working hours for young workers and domestic workers are 6 hours and 9.5 hours per day respectively. Overtime may be regulated under Collective Bargaining Agreement. No such regulation could be located. The Normal working hours for adult workers are not clearly defined in the Labour Act.

Overtime rates are determined by the National Employment Councils through a Collective Bargaining Agreement. The minimum overtime rate is 150% of the normal wage rate when workers have to work beyond normal working hours, as determined by the National Employment Councils. The standards working hours are 8.5 hours a day and 44 hours a week.

# State minimum salary:
Zimbabwe has no single official minimum wage except for agricultural and domestic workers,and government regulations for each of the 22 industrial sectors specify minimum wages. Zimbabwe’s minimum wage was last changed in 1-Jan-2012.

# Employee dismissal:
Either party can terminate a contract by serving a notice. The employer is not allowed to terminate the employee without just-cause. The employer must comply with the employment code or model code while terminating, otherwise the dismissal is considered unfair.

According to the Labour Act 1985, notice period depends on a period of contract as follows:

  • 3 months in the case of a contract without limit of time or a contract for a period of two years or more;
  • 2 months in the case of a contract for a period of one year or more but less than two years;
  • 1 month in the case of a contract for a period of six months or more but less than one year;
  • 2 weeks in the case of a contract for a period of three months or more but less than six months;
  • 1 day in the case of a contract for a period of less than three months or in the case of casual work or seasonal work.

During the probationary period, the notice for contract termination, given by either party, may be one week (in the case of causal or seasonal work) and two weeks (for other types of employment).

Under a July 17 2015 Supreme Court ruling, employers now have the right to terminate an employment contract by just giving the employee a three month-notice period, without any retrenchment costs. This has led to a wave of dismissals. The Zimbabwean Parliament is contemplating on making amendments in the Labour Act and requires employers to terminate a contract of employment on three grounds: for disciplinary reasons in terms of a code of conduct; if the employer and employee agree; or if the employee has been engaged on a fixed-term contract for a specified task. If none of these three reasons apply, the employer has to go through a formal retrenchment process.

In accordance with the Labour Act, severance pay is available only for collective dismissals for economic reasons, i.e., retrenchment. Although Retrenchment Board fixed the severance pay differently depending on the ability of the organization to pay, the most usual is 03 months pay for one year of service.

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