Friday, July 31, 2015

Austrian Zimbabwean

Generally, wage rates can only be kept above full-employment rates through coercion by governments, unions, or both. Occasionally, however, the wage rates are maintained by voluntary choice (although the choice is usually ignorant of the consequences) or by coercion supplemented by voluntary choice. It may happen, for example, that either business firms or the workers themselves may become persuaded that maintaining wage rates artificially high is their bounden duty. Such persuasion has actually been at the root of much of the unemployment of our time, and this was particularly true in the 1929 depression.
That's from Austrian economist Murray Rothbard. Now, from Zimbabwean Industry and Commerce Minister, Mike Bimha, who;
...said the ongoing wave of job losses is good for the industry, which he said has been saddled with ‘excess workforce’ before a recent Supreme Court ruling gave employers leeway to fire workers without the costs associated with retrenchment packages.

Bimha faults the government he represents;
“To me, it is a reflection that we had taken too long to amend labour laws,” Bimha told delegates at the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) congress.

“You cannot continue to have a lot of employees when business is not doing well.”
Instead, pay for productivity;
He said government supports productivity related wages, singling out Ziscosteel, which has been idle since 2008 when it was shut down, but has accumulated a wage bill that stood at $200 million as of 2014.
Asking a good question;
“Why should we pay unproductive workers? My hope is that we will not have an amended labour law which will worsen things,” said Bimha.-
Based on past practice, he will get such.

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