Labour Commissioner Givens Muntengwa says government has made progress in developing a minimum wage for the transport sector through the Labour Advisory Committee.
Mr. Muntengwa says the minimum wage will, going forward, act as a basis for unions in the transport sector to negotiate for conditions of service for their members.
He reiterated government’s commitment to developing a Statutory Instrument that regulates conditions of service for protected workers.
And Mr. Muntengwa has advised drivers in the transport sector against going on strike over the minimum wage because they do not fall under protected workers.
He says the planned strike is illegal because drivers in the transport sector have no sector minimum wage.
Addressing leaders of four transport sector unions at his office in Lusaka today, Mr. Muntengwa said the unions are instead supposed to negotiate for better conditions of service for their members.
He said striking before any dispute has been declared is illegal and drivers found wanting risk being fired by their employers.
The transport sector unions that attended the meeting are National Union of Transport and Allied Workers, United Truck Drivers and Allied workers Union of Zambia, Zambia Bus and Taxi Union of Zambia and Zambia Union of Tanker Drivers and Allied workers.
I wish I could have access to the text of the policy paper itself. There’s passenger bus passenger transport, goods transport, within goods transport there is petroleum transport which has its own special risks. This would be really interesting to read as different sectors hv different margins. It would be nice to see how they hv handled these.
Excellent stuff under the hardworking government of pf. The people talk, we listen and take action. Simple straight to the point. We don’t give you economic theories like hh. We just do it
It’ll require a lot of patience and levelheadedness from all players because this is one of the most difficult sectors to policy, especially the passenger transport and light trucks. Most players in this sector work elsewhere like the civil service, ZP, farmer, etc then they have a vehicle or 2 that they have put on the road for that extra income. As a result they’re not willing to attend consultative meetings. Then there’s no uniform employment criteria. So even if Govt comes up with legislation it’ll be difficult to enforce. What’s good is that at least something is being done. Institutions like NAPSA and the Workers’ Compensation Board should’ve moved in long ago to capture this category of workers.