The politics of labour representation in Chinese owned small to medium enterprises in Harare’s central business district.

Abstract

Labour representation is a subject that demands special attention in current industrial relations studies. The study sought to explore the politics of labour representation in Chinese owned SMEs in the Central Business District of Harare. The study was exploratory in nature. Key informant interviews, in-depth interviews, and semi-structured questionnaires were used as data collection methods in the inquiry. The data was presented in thematic form, statistics, and tables. The data was analysed through the common themes approach using Hyman’s Marxist analysis of industrial relations and the available literature. The findings of this study demonstrated that there is lack of formal unionised representation in Chinese owned SMEs. Without unionised representation, this group of workers is facing a transitional loss of unknown duration. There is also widespread exploitation of workers for profits, to exercise authority and for the purposes of oppression. The study revealed that workers in Chinese owned SMEs have limited knowledge of Zimbabwe’s labour laws and there is a greater need to conscientise them. However, the employees have their ways of navigating around the constraining spaces of lack of labour representation through subtle underground dealings, theft, deploying of social capital, and hiring of lawyers among others.