Collective Bargaining Agreement - Ferro Alloy Industry in Zimbabwe

This registers the Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Ferro Alloy Industry, signed at Kwekwe on 17 March 2023 but only gazetted on 23 August 2024. It amends the 2017 agreement (S.I. 76 of 2017) and is read as one with it, replacing the July–December 2022 agreement.

The agreement is backdated to 1 January 2023. Grade minimums went up by 7.5% on the December 2022 figures for January and February 2023, then by a further 9.02% for 1 March to 31 December 2023.

In cash terms the Grade 1 minimum moves from US$256,00 to US$275,20 and then to US$300,02 a month. Grade 8 goes from US$340,71 to US$366,26 and then US$399,30. At the top, Grade 16 goes from US$789,41 to US$848,62 and then US$925,17.

Pay is split: 75% of net earnings in United States dollars and 25% in Zimbabwe dollars at the RBZ auction rate prevailing on the day wages are paid. Allowances tied to basic salary, overtime, leave days and statutory deductions follow the same 75/25 split, for all grades 1 to 16.

Deductions are set at 2% of each employee's grade minimum for NEC dues, with the employer also remitting 2% in the same currency split, and 2% of basic salary for NUMAIZ union subscriptions. Employers with better locally arranged conditions are encouraged to keep them, and those able to pay above the minimum in US dollars are encouraged to do so. The parties agreed to reconvene within the life of the agreement if the economy deteriorates or improves.

Note that because the agreement was gazetted roughly twenty months after the period it covers ended, employers in the industry are effectively facing an arrears calculation rather than a forward-looking wage change.