Senior trade unionists are just being difficult, charges Levy
Senior trade unionists are just being difficult, charges LevyBy Mutuna Chanda
Friday May 02, 2008 [04:01]
PRESIDENT Levy Mwanawasa yesterday said the Industrial and Labour Relations Amendment Bill that is before Parliament will not be withdrawn. Officiating at the Labour Day celebration in Lusaka, President Mwanawasa accused trade unions of trying to be difficult over the bill.
"We won't withdraw the bill because we have already consulted you. Mr Hikaumba, you know that we have consulted you and you only want to be difficult," President Mwanawasa said. "Consultation does not mean that we have to agree with you. The fact remains that it's only the mother trade unions that are agitating for the withdrawal of the bill. The lower unions are happy with it."
President Mwanawasa said senior trade union leaders had taken the stance of being difficult because they had interests to protect.
“It’s known that there are very senior trade union leaders who have retired but have clung on to union positions while some are about to retire,” President Mwanawasa said. “All these are agitating that the law is bad because it will disadvantage them.
But we are saying trade unions must move their leadership to workers. It’s time to go. You insist that there must be two terms for the President (Republican) but you want to be there indefinitely. Why?”
President Mwanawasa said the labour commissioner needed to receive audited accounts of trade unions.
“We have received reports of union funds being used for personal legal fees and for building houses,” President Mwanawasa said.
“The committee on labour at Parliament will be calling you and if they agree with you, they will recommend that the bill be withdrawn or that it be amended and if they don’t agree with you, it will come to Parliament and don’t you threaten that you will go on strike if the bill is not withdrawn. If you go on strike I’ll fire you.”
President Mwanawasa also said that trade unions appeared to be under the impression that if they put a government in power, they could make whatever demands they wished.
“If you want K3 million across the board, you don’t think of where it will come from and the opposition join you in pressurising and workers will agitate instead of thinking that this is too high,” he said.
“When you hold your general meetings, you want to be re-elected and you think you won’t be re-elected if you are not militant and to be militant is to demand unreasonable wage increases. And yet among your members are the people who are responsible for raising finances and have the capacity to tell what government has raised but this does not happen.”
President Mwanawasa further urged investors in the copper mines not to use the review of the mine tax regime as an excuse to deny workers improved conditions of service.
“What we have done in mineral taxes should not be an excuse for investors to disadvantage employees,” President Mwanawasa said. “If you do, workers won’t work hard and profits will be worse. We are aware that even with taxes, there is a lot for mines. The taxes are not higher than the average among copper producers.”
Earlier Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Leonard Hikaumba urged the government to withdraw the Industrial and Labour Relations Amendment Bill in view of the complaints that the amendments that were incorporated were not agreed on.
Some of the contentious issues in the Industrial and Labour Relations Amendment Bill include the amendments of: section 69 of the Industrial and Labour Relations Act where the most representative trade unions in the sector, trade or industry would lead negotiations with employers after forming an alliance with minority labour bodies; section 21 where the labour commissioner had been given powers to appoint an independent auditor to look at the books of account of a trade union which is suspected of abusing funds or using them contrary to its objectives and that depending on the auditor's recommendation, officers of the union could be suspended for a period not beyond 90 days pending conclusion of the audit report.
Hikaumba further said there was still time for President Mwanawasa to redeem himself to be counted as having done something for the workers.
“Zambia is poor and yet very rich in natural resources. Why should we remain poor? Talk of minerals, they are in abundance; water is in abundance; human resources are in abundance. What haven’t we done?” Hikaumba asked. “Mr President, at the end of your second term we want to look back and say what did he do for us? We don’t want to count you as a statistic; as President Mwanawasa did nothing. You still have time to redeem yourself. I know on the road to success there is no shortcut. Before we reached HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) completion point, workers were used as sacrificial lambs.
They were told they could not get salaries they were asking for until after HIPC but after reaching HIPC workers are asking where are the salaries? Many young men are PHDs not PHDs because they are doctors of philosophy. It’s Poor Hair Distribution (PHD) due to malnutrition that we are talking of, and these are the issues we need to tackle.”
Hikaumba said decent work for employees meant that they should afford basics from the first to the very last day of the month and are able to have three meals through them.
He further said decent work implied jobs for the youth, disabled as well as gender equity and equality.
Hikaumba called for unity among workers, political parties, employers and the government.
And Zambia Federation of Employers president Dr George Chabwera called for the liberalisation of the labour market in Zambia to facilitate the creation of decent jobs.
And International Labour Organisation area representative for Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique Gerry Finnegan said the creation of decent jobs was the most sustainable way out of poverty.
Meanwhile, there was disapproval by spectators and employees from different institutions when a Zesco truck displaying what the company is involved in was driving past the President.
This year’s Labour Day theme is ‘Economic empowerment through decent work and social justice’.
Labels: LABOUR, MWANAWASA, TRADE UNIONS
posted by MrK @ 5:44 AM
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