Zvamaida Murwira
Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT has gazetted the Public Service Amendment Bill that compels civil servants to resign from public service upon assuming political office and also provides that female employees shall be granted ninety-eight (98) days of maternity leave on full pay.
The Bill will also compel Public Service Commissioners to declare their assets and ban industrial action by those providing health services.
All the provisions are meant to ensure compliance with the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Clause 20 of the Bill emphasises the need to comply with the Constitution, which says a member of the civil service must resign within 30 days of assuming political office as a Member of Parliament or a councillor.
It reads as follows: “Any member seeking election to Parliament and Local Authorities shall be subjected to the provisions of section 129(h) and 278(1) of the Constitution, respectively.”
Section 129 (h) of the Constitution reads as follows: “The seat of a Member of Parliament becomes vacant (h) if the Member was a public officer or a member or employee of a statutory body, a government-controlled entity, a provincial or metropolitan council or a local authority on the date he or she was declared as a Member of Parliament, and he or she fails to relinquish that office, membership or employment within thirty (30) days after that date.”
Clause 22 precludes those providing essential services from embarking on industrial action.
It reads as follows: “Subject to this Act, members of the Public Service have the right to participate in collective job action unless they are employed in any department, service or section of the Public Service that has been declared to be an essential service.”
Clause Three defines essential services relating to public service as referring to any department, section or part of the Public Service, which, when interrupted, would endanger, immediately, the life, personal safety or health of any person.
The Clause is expected to put an end to perennial industrial action that was embarked upon in the past by health service providers in institutions that have resulted in the deaths of many patients and disruption of services.
Major referral hospitals have in the past been paralysed after health workers embarked on a collective job action, ignoring calls from the Government to pursue dialogue instead of endangering the lives of innocent patients who have a right in terms of the Constitution, to medical attention.
Clause 23 of the Bill stipulates that a female employee shall be granted ninety-eight (98) days maternity leave on full pay.
Before the Public Service Amendment Bill, Zimbabwean civil servants were entitled to 98 days of fully paid maternity leave, as per the Labour Act [Chapter 28:01], after serving for at least one year.
The new Bill, now approved by Cabinet and expected to be tabled in Parliament, seeks to enhance this further by removing the qualifying service period and the limit on the number of times maternity leave can be taken.