Story by Tichaona Kurewa
The National Employment Council for the Tourism Sector has launched a nationwide training programme for its members on labour relations, aiming to enhance productivity and drive industrial growth.
Zimbabwe’s tourism sector is the third-largest contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with projections to surpass mining and agriculture by 2025.
The National Employment Council for the Tourism Sector (NEC) Tourism recognises that harmonious employer-employee relations are crucial to achieving these goals.
“One of the key issues in tourism is reputation, when our members are now able to handle labour issues professionally, what is happening is that we are going to have fewer cases in the courts. The moment we are able to handle issues internally without publicising them, then even the tourists when they want to do business with us when they google for whatever organisation, they will find out that the organisations are clean in terms of labour disputes. We want to avoid negative publicity of labour issues that we can handle at our level,” said NEC Tourism Chairperson, Mr Precious Mhaka.
“When the house is in order, the tourism industry is also in order and our contributions towards the gross domestic product of the country will actually have some direction. Right now we are the third contributor in terms of the GDP in Zimbabwe after mining and agriculture but going forward I actually see the tourism sector coming to number one because there will be understanding between the employer and the employee,” noted Tourism Hospitality and Environment Employers Association of Zimbabwe president, Mrs Barbra Murasiranwa.
NEC Tourism General Secretary, Mr Nomore Nhema cited harmony between employers and employees as key to boosting productivity, “We are capacitating both the workers committee and the management of the tourism industry to ensure that when they handle disciplinary processes they need to explore alternative dispute resolutions such that they don’t waste time on litigation and focus more on productivity.”
The tourism and hospitality industry’s economic statistics reveal an 83 per cent increase in tourist arrivals in the first half of 2024, propelling the sector to the number one position.
