2009 budget should serve as a relief to workers’ plight – Phiri

2009 budget should serve as a relief to workers’ plight – Phiri
Written by Allan Mulenga and Gloria Siwisha
Sunday, January 11, 2009 9:23:04 AM

ZAMBIA Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) first deputy president Sam Phiri has said the 2009 budget should serve as a relief to the workers' plight.

And Federation for Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ) president Joyce Nonde hoped that a large chunk of this year's budget would go towards diversifying the agricultural sector.

In an interview yesterday, Phiri said the current tax regime was not favourable to workers, saying there was need for the government to increase tax exemption threshold from the current K600,000 to K1. 5 million to enable workers have enough purchasing power.

"The Pay As You Earn exemption threshold is too high for ordinary workers. At least the government should exempt workers earning less than K1.5 million from tax and later revise the tax brackets from one per cent to the maximum of 10 per cent. Although we understand our responsibility to contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)," he said.

Phiri said the government should ensure that the budget was worker-friendly particularly for those in the formal sector.

"We want the government to come up with a worker friendly budget particularly for us in the formal sector because the numbers are reducing due to the current problems affecting the mines. We don't expect to be inflicted with more pain," he said.

And Nonde said the global economic recession has had an adverse effect on the mining industry and should serve as a wake-up call for the government to make a revolutionary turn towards building the agricultural sector.

"The country is going through an economic crisis and right now the inflation rates have also gone up. This on its on means the union will have problems with the government when it comes to negotiations for the plight of workers in the country," she said.

Nonde said this was a time for the government to work towards encouraging local investments as opposed to depending only on foreign investment.

"The government talks about the country benefiting from investments but we don't feel the impact. There is need for solid investments into the agricultural sector, the kind that would trickle down to Zambians. The dropping further of the copper prices should serve as a lesson to the government not to entirely depend on copper," said Nonde.

Meanwhile, Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) general secretary Roy Mwaba urged the government to budget for over K12 billion rural hardship allowances arrears owed to teachers countrywide.

"In this year's budget we urge the government to clear all the outstanding rural hardship allowances owed to teachers countrywide. In some districts the government has four years rural hardship arrears," said Mwaba.