Collective Bargaining Agreement Food and Allied Industries (Sweets and Confectionery Sub-sector)

This registered collective bargaining agreement amends the long-standing sweets and confectionery agreement published in S.I. 340 of 1999. The employers' association and the workers' union met on 10 March 2023 and agreed to raise the basic wage, housing allowance and transport allowance by 25,38 per cent for the period January to March 2023. It was gazetted in March 2024, a year later.

The new monthly minimums for January to March 2023 run from ZWL$205 000,00 at grade A1 through ZWL$219 552,75 at B1 to ZWL$248 664,90 at C2. The table also prints the September, October, November and December 2022 figures for comparison.

Housing and transport allowances are each ZWL$26 000 a month for January, February and March. Where the employer actually provides transport, the employee gets no transport allowance.

The other allowances: night shift rises from ZWL$640 to ZWL$732 per night for grades A1 to C2 with effect from 1 January 2023. Subsistence for the quarter is ZWL$2 928 each for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and accommodation is pegged at ZWL$15 000 per night.

The parties also recorded an intention to negotiate wages partly in US dollars and partly in RTGS at the next round — a statement of intent, not a present entitlement.

Two caveats. The November 2022 figure for grade A1 prints as "1 450,00", which is out of line with every neighbouring figure and looks like a printing error for a number around ZWL$145 000. And the agreement records the meeting as taking place on 10 March 2023 but is signed "on the 10th day of March, 2022" — one of those years is wrong.