Collective Bargaining Agreement The Medical and Allied Industry

This Collective Bargaining Agreement, registered under section 79 of the Labour Act [Chapter 28:01], amends section 10 (Grading, Wages and Allowances) of the Medical and Allied Industry CBA published in S.I. 93 of 2019. It was signed at Harare on 23 June 2023 and gazetted on 3 May 2024, and it sets minimum wages for the period 1 June to 31 December 2023.

The industry is split into three negotiating groups. Group 1 is hospitals, medical aid societies and health funders, pharmaceutical wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers, and laboratories. Group 2 is imaging, retail pharmacies, specialists, ambulances and optometry. Group 3 is primary care physicians, rehabilitation, clinics, counsellors, psychologists and dentists. For the purposes of the agreement a hospital is a predominantly inpatient facility with 10 or more beds; a clinic is predominantly outpatient with fewer than 10 inpatient beds.

Group 1 minimum wages run from US$291,58 at grade A1 to US$573,57 at C3, with at least 34,2 per cent paid in actual US dollars. Group 2 runs from US$300,00 at A1 to US$590,14 at C3, with at least 33,334 per cent in actual US dollars. In both groups the balance is paid in Zimbabwe dollars at the RBZ auction rate prevailing in the week before payment, with a 10 per cent premium applied to that rate when converting. Group 3 runs from US$287,50 at A1 to US$565,56 at C3, with a flat minimum of US$100 in actual US dollars and the remainder in ZWL at the auction rate — no 10 per cent premium is mentioned for this group. Employers able to pay wholly in US dollars are encouraged to do so.

Other terms: these are minimums only and no employee already on a higher wage or better benefits may be reduced because of the agreement. An institution operating across sectors is placed in the sector where its primary business is registered. Where transport is not provided, the employer must pay a daily transport allowance covering 100 per cent of the actual fares to and from work on any route within the town or city. NEC dues stay at 3 per cent from the employer and 2 per cent from the employee, remitted proportionally in the currency of payment. The agreements are renewable if unforeseen economic exigencies arise.

Readers should note the timing: the wage schedule expired on 31 December 2023, months before the agreement was gazetted, and the ZWL conversion mechanism refers to the RBZ auction rate that operated before the introduction of ZiG. Later awards may have overtaken these figures.