Harare — IT is difficult to understand why the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions has decided to call on workers to knock off early for Easter, and what it hopes to gain by this call for a stayaway.

Everyone agrees that the Zimbabwean economy is not in good health and everyone agrees that the ordinary waged worker is the worst hit by hyperinflation.

So the ZCTU has no one to persuade.

At the same time, serious discussions have at last started on a social contract and some progress has been made.

The social contract is most crucial for those receiving wages and salaries, which tend to lag behind inflation even with the best employers.

These are the people represented largely by the member unions of the ZCTU.

Professionals and the self-employed businesspeople are able to insulate themselves against inflation by raising fees and prices.

Many have gone further and, by pegging their fees and profits to the parallel market rate, have even been beating inflation since this exchange rate has nothing to do with the actual purchasing power of a Zimbabwe dollar.

What we are seeing is the classic result of hyperinflation, transferring wealth from the poor to the rich.

So the call for a stayaway just after the first serious discussions on the social contract in Mutare seems to suggest that the ZCTU is simply not serious about fixing the economy and, not just having the economy fixed but fixed in a way that will make the people it represents the big winners.

It would make far more sense for the ZCTU to take the Government and employers at their word and push them as hard as possible in talks to live up to the statements that are being made.

There is need to turn statements into action, especially statements by the business community where too many agree verbally with the idea of a social contract while pushing their prices and profits through the roof. We suspect that the ZCTU leadership is still confused about its true role and wants to play politics rather than get the best deal possible for those it represents in economic talks.

Again there is no need for this. Everyone knows that most of the ZCTU leadership supports the MDC politically and that, in the last two general elections, a majority of members of affiliated unions probably voted for the MDC.

On the other hand, while the employers' confederation is smart enough not to make political statements, few doubt that most business leaders are politically opposed to the Government.

In some ways the Government finds itself in the curious position in the tripartite talks of trying to get the two quite divergent wings of the opposition to come to an agreement.

The ZCTU should follow the example of the employers on the political issue and keep party politics out of the economic talks.

In less than a year the people of Zimbabwe will go to the polls to elect a President and probably a new Parliament.

That process is different and separate from the economic talks now in progress.

There is no need to confuse the need to fix the economy in a way that benefits workers with a desire by labour leaders, or business leaders for that matter, to change the Government.

Confusing the economic and political processes will simply condemn the ordinary worker to more hardship.

But perhaps that is what the ZCTU and its backers want?

We hope the workers, who so badly need the social contract, will educate their leadership and push them to return to the negotiations, take these seriously, and get a deal all can live with and benefit from.