THE Zambia Federation of Employers (ZFE) and Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) have supported amendments to the Employment Act that bans casualisation and unjustified termination of employment in the country.
ZFE executive director Harrington Chibanda said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the amendments to the Employment Act have come at the right time when many Zambians have been complaining about the unfair termination of employment and casualisation.
“ZFE has no problem with this amendment to the Employment Act because it is meant to protect our people against casualisation and unfair termination of employment.
“We are, however, of the view that even the employer should have been given the powers to terminate someone’s employment if notice is given with valid reasons,” Mr Chibanda said.
He said the ZFE is happy that the government has ended casualisation.
Mr Chibanda urged Government to employ more labour inspectors to help enforce the law.
On Wednesday, Minister of Labour and Social Security Fackson Shamenda announced that President Lungu on November 26 this year signed into law the amendments to the Employment Act and that the law was published on December 3, 2015.
And the Professional Teachers Union of Zambia (PROTUZ) has hailed Government for banning casualisation of employment and unjustified termination of labour.
PROTUZ secretary general Albert Muyembe said yesterday that the move was long overdue because Zambians have been exploited by investors for a long time.
Zambia United Local Authority Workers Union (ZULAWU) secretary general Kingsley Zulu says the PF government under President Lungu has proven that it is the government of the people by banning casualisation of labour.
Mr Zulu said many Zambian workers had suffered under the name of casualisation.
Meanwhile, VIOLET MENGO reports from Lusaka that ZCTU president Nkole Chishimba has condemned anti-union tendencies perpetuated by some employers who have continued to stifle the rights of workers.
He was speaking in Lusaka at the end of the year press conference where he reviewed the year 2014 giving the successes and challenges in the labour movement.
Mr Chishimba advised Government through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to revise other archaic laws and called for the strengthening of the inspectorate unit under the ministry.
He appealed to the ZFE to work with the labour movement in educating employers on labour laws and the newly amended Employment Act.
atleast loans now mu private sector ni plenty,we suffered unless you are a government worker.
All Eurobond beneficiaries and PF controlled companies should listen to their masters. The rest of us will pay what we can afford and employ who we want and fire when we want. Form your own company if you want permanent employment.
GRZ, ZESCO and the water utility companies have heard for sure … are they not the main culprits in casualization and unfair dismissals!
Lolest!
What if a woman knocks on your door early in the morning begging for a “piece-work” to wash clothes, or a young man seeking to cut grass around your house? Casualisation can’t be banned completely.
The f00ls don’t even know what is good for them.They keep blaming God and China for their problems when it is clear that it is their incompetence to blame.A poor country like Zambia should keep production costs low part of production cost is labour.Less than 20% of available labour is employed yet we spend more than 50% of our budget on them..They even introduce minimum wage of K1,300 if you go to Soweto and offer those loffers loitering there whom these 1diots have failed to provide jobs for even K300 u will have a problem even to control the crouwd.But here they are even complicating their problems.In China some workers work for a meal but here you have 1diots who cant think.They don’t even understand the implications of their policies.
LOL, include Zamtel to your list. In the name of contracts there is a lot of unjustified terminations of employment in Zamtel. Let someone investigate.
Comment:these pipo don’t rily knw wat they do!! They make pipo turn into thugs coz all there hope is taken and they end up thinking lik thts hw they were goin to liv their live their lives.
Comment: does it mean no internship aswell? someone educate me on this
its a working government .we ‘re behind u
If this means that work which is seasonal in nature must be converted into permanent then the law has missed the point and will cause more problems. Seasonal work is seasonal work, period! An employer should not be forced to keep employees not needed for operations! Corporate Value creation does not work that way!
Comment: This Act only applies to those jobs which are permanent in nature.
techmahindra running airtel call centre its worse… thanx to this listerning govt…bravo team lungu
….let Shamenda give us the definition of casualization they have referred to in their books….
Govt should also reduce the 10year clause for an employee to qualify for 3months pay for each year served to 5 years…some workers have lost out on 3months pay in the name of being retrenched..Today there are wide spread rentrenchments that are happening without the faulty of the employees who still yearn to work for many years in a company.Nowdays when one is declared redundant and have not served for 10 years with his employers he is paid 2months pay for each year served.Even if one has served for 9 years in company he does not qualify to be paid 3months upon being retrenched.Many Employees have lost out money on there benefits although still earger to continue working. Atleast miners were paid exgracia..
Good afternoon I hope Ec lungu president of zambia like he promised Zambian that by the end of 2015 he is create jobs for about 5000 as he kept his promise to the Zambian pipo?
Zambia’s economy is in its infancy. We should not be compared to USA and even in America there is casualisation. Can a company employ people permanently on a job which can take 2 weeks? This is politiking and will soon backfire. Lets be realistic and not looking at ourselves who already have jobs. This also means very few people will be employed.
I hope hh will stop mistreating his farm workers and pay them well instead of dismissing them if they are not willing to get the peanuts offered.
Just coz you were fired from his farm for being caught shagging one of his cows does not mean people there get peanuts. You probably got peanuts coz of being mesmerisingly dull 🙂
What is “casualization”? Could the old man Papa Shamenda explain to us…surely does this govt have a vision or road map?Who are we employing in the civil service as policy advisers to these ministers? On one hand you want to be Pro business and create employment then again you want to embrace socialist policies and bring down businesses especially SMEs. This is another ban that will be reversed like that on imported cooking oil or how is an SME business going to survive in this challenging environment of 12 hour day load-shedding, unstable Kwacha, inconsistency in govt policy…especially in sectors such as Retail, Agriculture, Construction, Manufacturing.
Has ZFE really consulted its members on casualization and is every employer in Zambia obligated to be a member of this selfsame…
… organisation? If not how do they become a stakeholder?
Does Zambia really need some types of jobs? There is a lot of waste of resources. For instance, do companies need office orderlies? Can such jobs be permanent? What do those guys do apart from making tea and playing insolo? If you go to universities here in the USA, you find that just one office assistant manages a big department. There are no office orderlies. Dean, chairs, etc. make their own coffee or they buy from nearby stores. Most of the store assistants are not employed on permanent basis.
This will scare away investores who we need to pay for those roads that have been built. Casual work is better than no work. This move together with the minimum wage will surely backfire as investores are already scared off by high costs of production and now being stuck with radicalised lazy workers who think investores owe them the minimum wage for doing shoddy work.
exactly my thoughts.Which investor is going to come to a country and payK1300 minimum wage and be forced to keep an assho1e who is needed for 2 weeks permanently?Surely is there no limit to PF mediocrity?And who is that little girl being given his tuma papers?The old fool is now too important to put his own papers down?
Why do has it become so fashionable for people to comment out of self imposed ignorance? All one has to do is read the statement Mr. Shamenda made when announcing this statutory amendment to understand what he meant by CASUAL LABOUR, and sort of positions/jobs he is talking about. I guess “WORK/JOBS OF PERMANENT IN NATURE” needs further definition to certain people. How can you honestly employ “an office overly/worker” on casual basis and then keep them on the pay roll forever just to skate around the law? And someone thinks that’s actually acceptable? Is this really how shallow blogging has now become on LT? Shocking!!!
The UK economy, the best performing in the EU is based on casual workers, it depends on casual workers.
Banning casualisation is not an isue, the problem is the labour laws are too old, too much corruption the union of this time are also the problem, the labour minister is very weak as well, the pruning system at Lumwana mine is very catastrophic, they are making rules each and every month, e.g no one should come with mobile phone on the mine. Six employee so far has lost job without any package. After working with them six years. Is not this slavery? Please minister papa,this is our land God gave us.
Mukodohyi, you do understand that when you are employed on CASUAL basis you NOT ENTITLED to any terminal or severance package when you leave a company for any reason (retrenchment, termination, etc), right? And this is exactly the sort of abuse by employers that this statutory amendment is aimed at combating. THEY WHERE JUST TOO MANY COMPANIES IN ZAMBIA ENGAGING PEOPLE IN EMPLOYMENT ON CASUAL BASIS JUST SO THEY CAN DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT WITHOUT ANY PENALTY OF THE LAW WHATSOEVER!!! And yet some shallow people on here think that that kind behavior by employers was just fine. Go figure!
Government should also stem the job losses especially on the mines by increasing the minimum redundancy pay from 2 months to say 28 months as was the case with ZCCM. Employers will think twice before effecting redundancies and there will be no need for goverment to plead with them each time they threaten to halt operations. Most of their moves seem to be politically motivated as they are effecting these redundacies at a time when it can hurt goverment the most. In fact some are indicating they will resume operation next year- after elections!