Mcdonald Chipenzi and Mwila Nkonge
6 September 2005
Lusaka — ZAMBIA Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary general Sylvester Tembo yesterday said the current minimum wage and conditions of employment Act has legalised slave wages for workers.
And Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) assistant social conditions research coordinator Peter Petrauskis said the best way of determining the minimum wage would be to set a poverty datum line.
Welcoming President Levy Mwanawasa's directive to labour minister Mutale Nalumango to amend the Act within 30 days, Tembo said under the Act, non-unionised employees were paid very low wages which fell below the poverty datum line because the minimum wage was K95,000.
He said since the economic environment had changed, the Act should be amended before the year-end in order to protect non-unionised workers.
However, Tembo said caution should be exercised in carrying out such an exercise because it had the potential to disadvantage workers if not properly handled.
Tembo said the Ministry of Labour and Social Security should not panic in amending the Act to avoid making wrong decisions in the process which could cause workers to lose out in the process. He advised the government to take stock of the workers' accumulated liabilities over the years before such amendments were done.
"We demand that caution is taken as we discuss these sensitive issues so that what is due to them (workers) is given out because we are concerned that they may lose out," Tembo said.
He advised workers not to celebrate the presidential directive because Ministry of Labour and Social Security officials, out of panic might do the wrong things. Tembo said the issue of the minimum wage had been of major concern for some time now.
And Petrauskis said while the centre welcomed President Mwanawasa's directive, it was of the view that a poverty datum line would provide a benchmark against which to measure if employers were abusing their workers or not.
He noted that with the basic needs basket (BNB) being slightly over K1.3 million, a minimum wage as low as K95,000 was unacceptable.
"We are not saying that because the BNB is K1,358,990 the minimum wage should be K1.3 million because we know that most employers would have problems meeting this," Petrauskis said. "But setting the poverty datum line will provide a benchmark that employers can meet without suffering unnecessary stress. The other thing is that reviewing the minimum wage Act should be done annually so that changes in the cost of living are incorporated, unlike the current situation where a review is being done after three years. The review should also reflect, as much as possible, the BNB."
Currently, the minimum wage is K95,000 although Parliament last year proposed a minimum wage of K260,000.
Closing the Zambia International Business Advisory Council (ZIBAC) conference in Livingstone on Sunday, President Mwanawasa said he did not want any more delayed implementation of the Act.
President Mwanawasa said the minimum wages and conditions of employment Act amendment would remove abuse and its causes in the workplace.
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