employers over new salaries. He said unions were beinghampered by the
fact that the new minimum wages were not yet
legallybinding.

Matombo accused the
government of "politicking and trying to fool thepeople into believing that
they have the concerns of the workers at
heart".

"It is difficult for the
government recommendations to be implementedin the absence of a legal
instrument. There is need for a statutoryinstrument to support the new
government measures," he said.

The ZCTU
president added: "In any case, the government does not wantto legislate its
proposals because most people in key positions in thegovernment are
employers and they would not want to pay those salaries. Theyown hotels,
shops and farms. In their own right, they are both employees
andexploiters."

But Lancester Museka,
the permanent secretary in the Ministry ofPublic Service, Labour and Social
Welfare, yesterday said it was up toNational Employment Councils to force
employersto pay minimum wages.

He said:
"Legal instruments to force employers to pay minimum wagescome out of
National Employment Councils.

"All the
employees who may not be receiving the minimum wages nowcould only mean that
the trade union and employer organisations in therespective industries have
not reached an agreement in the spirit of the
TNFstatement.''

The pro-government
Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU) alsosaid it was the
responsibility of unions to negotiate with
employers.

Joseph Chinotimba, the vice
president of the ZFTU said: "Thegovernment made its own recommendations and
set standards for minimum wagesfor each sector of the economy, but unions
were supposed to negotiate withthe
employers.

"Now that the employers have
failed to meet our expectations, we haveappealed to the government to pass a
law that forces compliance,'' he said.

Chinotimba said his union had failed to convince farmers to awardtheir
workers $23 070 a month.

But Matombo
argued that minimum