Maravi

Committee fails to agree on minimum wage

Committee fails to agree on minimum wage
By Agness Changala
Fri 13 Nov. 2009, 04:00 CAT

THE technical committee of tripartite consultative council which was set up by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to review the minimum wage among other issues has failed to reach consensus on the new wage.

In an interview yesterday, council representative from Federation of Free Trade Unions in Zambia (FFTUZ) Deluse Mwansa disclosed that the team had discussed many issues to do with the labour relations and employers Acts but failed to come up with a new wage.

Mwansa accused employers of being selfish in that they did not agree with the proposed K599,000 minimum wage.

“We came up with K599,000 but the employers are saying it is going to be costly on their part,” he said. “As a union we feel it’s reasonable because people are suffering in this country.”

Mwansa said since the employers were complaining that the proposed minimum wage would be costly on their part, the committee would leave it to the government to come up with a figure which he said, the union would support.

He said since the committee did not agree on the new wage, they had left it to the government to come up with a statutory instrument which would be taken to the Ministry of Justice for further action.

He said the government’s proposal on the matter would be better than the employers’.

Mwansa said the statutory instrument would also be taken to Cabinet and Parliament before it could be advertised in the government gazette.

Two weeks ago, labour minister Austin Liato disclosed that his ministry had constituted a team of representatives from Zambia Federation of Employers (ZFE), trade unions and government officials to review the minimum wage, which currently stands at K268,000.

Liato said the government was prompted to set up a committee because the minimum wage and offer of poor conditions of service to workers were a great source of concern.

Labels: DELUSE MWANSA, MINIMUM WAGE, MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL SECURITY

posted by MrK @ 3:47 PM