The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) held a consultative meeting on 28 and 29 june 2012 at Cosmic lodge in Lusaka. The meeting discussed and consolidated concerns of the Labour movement regarding the 2013 budget and addressed a number of issues like 100 % raise for constitutional office bearers, Minimum wage, Taxes and 2013 budget .
Below is the full Press release made available to the media and signed by Secretary General Roy Mwaba
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INTRODUCTION
The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) held a consultative meeting on 28 and 29 June 2012 at cosmic lodge in Lusaka. The meeting discussed and consolidated concerns of the labour movement regarding the 2013 budget. We may all be aware that government is expected to present the 2013 national budget in October and thus provides us the opportunity to submit expectations of the trade union movement in next year’s budget. The 2013 budget provides a unique dimension of expectations to workers for being the first budget that will have been absolutely planned under the Patriotic Front administration. Our main expectation is that the 2013 budget will provide government the opportunity to outline major economic policies that will ensure sustained broad based growth and particularly specify possible interventions for employment creation and attainment of decent working conditions for workers in Zambia. Therefore, ZCTU makes the following few proposals.
INCOME TAX
ZCTU is concerned that for a long time a few formal sector workers have been contributing a large share to the national budget through PAYE. In this regard, we emphasize that the 2013 budget must provide adequate tax relief to the few formal sector workers. We note that about 500,000 formal sector workers currently contribute 20% of total domestic revenue while the remaining five million workers in the informal sector do not contribute through PAYE. For this reason the 2013 budget should ensure putting in place provisions for extending the tax base and improving efficiency in tax collection to enhance domestic revenue collections and provide the needed tax relief to the few workers in the formal sector.
In this light, the basic needs basket, which is a fair measure of the cost of basic food items and essential non-food items for a family of six, must be the yardstick and criteria for determining the non taxable PAYE monthly income threshold. Appreciating efforts made in last year’s budget to increase the non-tax threshold from K800,000 to K2,000,000, there should be considerations for further tax relief by revising the tax rates. Thus, ZCTU is proposing to maintain the current tax bands and propose revision of tax rates as follows.
| Current Income bands | Current Tax Rates | Proposed Tax Rates |
| K2,000,000 and below per month | 0% | 0% |
| K2,000,001 to K2,800,000 per month | 25% | 15% |
| K2,800,0001 to K5,700,000 per month | 30% | 20% |
| Above k5,700,000 per month | 35% | 25% |
ACCESS TO FINANCIAL CREDIT
ZCTU acknowledges the difficulty workers have in accessing credit from financial institutions. This is largely because of high interest rates and restrictive requirements. Despite incentives put in place in the 2012 budget such as reduction of corporate tax paid by commercial banks and reduction of the reserve ratio by the central bank, bank lending rates have remained high.
Therefore, the 2013 budget must provide for the establishment of a credit union to enhance access to affordable finance credit especially to public service workers. The budget must also provide for incentives through other through other interventions such as the citizens economic empowerment fund to ensure that targeted people, especially from the informal sector, have access to finance. This will help in increasing small scale indigenous investment which will be sustainable in employment creation.
EMPLOYMENT CREATION
The challenge of unemployment in Zambia is largely attributed to lack of skills. To enhance skills development, the 2013 budget must provide for increased funding towards education and particularly curriculum development to align the tevet policy with skills needs of the labour market. To ensure sustainable human development, the 2013 budget must also ensure increased funding to health; introduce a health insurance scheme, and extend social protection coverage to the informal sector where the majority of workers are confined.
To enhance diversification and ensure broad based growth and employment creation, investment policies should provide incentives for ensuring value addition and local participation. Such investments must target all growth sectors including agriculture, tourism, mining, and construction.
In addition to increased investment in growth sectors, ZCTU proposes that the 2013 budget should introduce an apprenticeship policy to absorb and expose prospective graduates from colleges and universities into the industry in order to enhance skills development. To promote this policy, the 2013 budget should equally give tax concessions to companies offering apprenticeship and internship programmes.
ZCTU further proposes that government should ensure that investment policies provide incentives for employment creation in all sectors and be coordinated by an institutional framework that will ensure easy tracking and monitoring of performance in each sector.
REVISION OF THE MINIMUM WAGE
ZCTU is concerned with a number of issues that have come as offshoots to the recently revised minimum wage. We want to restate that ZCTU supports the revision of the minimum wage because it is one of the tools that government can use to ensure shared prosperity. We have the mandate to fight for living wages and it can be acknowledged that even the revised rates will not help any of the protected employees to meet basic needs if paid at minimum. However, we admit that there are challenges arising from the implementation. For this reason, dialogue would be the best approach to resolve this matter without any employee losing employment. Any well meaning Zambian or employer cannot go ahead to fire an employee before engaging in dialogue. Firing in this case is expected to be the last resort when all other avenues for dialogue have not worked.
100% PAY RAISE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICE BEARERS
We note that government recently increased salaries and allowances for constitutional office bearers by about 100%. This comes in the wake of public service workers receiving a 15% salary award. As a labour movement organisation, our principle will always remain to fight for good working conditions and decent incomes. Out of this principle, ZCTU is not against the pay rise but rather the principle and economic circumstances under which such a pay rise was awarded.
We note that from the recent public service negotiations, the underlying objective was to rationalize the public service pay structure in order to allocate more resources to the lowly paid public service workers and less resources to the highly paid and privileged public service workers. The long term intention is to reduce income inequalities among public service workers because they draw their wages from the same treasury. We are coming from the background of pay reforms with the understanding that the current public service wage bill is not sustainable using domestic resources and therefore needs careful control.
In contrast, government has demonstrated capacity to award such pay awards to constitutional office bearers at the time when public service workers were informed that government does not have enough resources to award such pay rises. Our concern is that despite the public service wage bill being unsustainably high, incomes for most public service workers have remained low. Therefore, the move by government will maintain the current challenge of a high public service wage bill and low incomes for unionized workers because high income inequalities in the public service will be perpetuated.
WAGE DEMANDS FOR PUBLIC SERVICE WORKERS
In view that the national budget will be presented in the next two months, we have always advocated that the allocation for improving personal emoluments in the budget must reflect the needs of the workers. For this reason, we urge all affiliate public service unions to prepare and submit their demands to government for the 2013 wage awards before the budget is announced. This will help government to plan for appropriate allocations towards pay wards next year. In future, we expect that public service negotiations will be synchronized with the budget cycle so that negotiations for pay awards are concluded before the budget is presented.
CONCLUSION
ZCTU is aware of a number of priority areas which have not have been mentioned. Our interest, however, is to take into account the aspirations of the workers in Zambia. We emphasise on a budget that will ensure employment creation, sustainable livelihood through decent incomes, enhance skills development, ensure re-distributive policies and broad based growth.
Well…well,This could be the union for hope to the masses who wallow in abject poverty..I hope they will be stronger than trade unions of South Africa and Arab nations.Hey people why is it that most trade unions are quiet over recent develpments in the country?are they there or mere cosmetic?somebody help me
What a shame! such corwards. You should learn to call a spade a spade.The president and his ministers have increased their salaries by 100% and yet goverment workers were only given 15%. This should be comdemned, why swallow words,condmen them,show us what ZCTU is made of. To me this statement is nothing but a few phrases from some toothless union.Maybe they should turn this silly union into a goverment dept at ministry of labour.What`s the use of a union which shows signs of cowardice? A mother body for that matter. One wonders where this ocuntry is going.How does it then protect workers.What a low blow from these scared chaps,am sure they are already at statehouse for their brown enevelops greedy monkeys.
This sounds like a toothless organisation that even take the welfare of its members seriously. how can they allow their members who are degree/masters to earn less money than deputy ministers who are busy forging NIPA certificates?
A lot of word… but just a pack of bullshit.
That’s just laughable, these guys are just tiptoeing around issues even the “limp fisted” conclusion is a mere whitewash! Whatever happened to ZCTU even you chose to ignore these increments for constitutional office bearers until last week, don’t forget that allowances have also been increased by 100% meaning that those including Sata who travel abroad on “Private Visits” will happily rewarded in dollars.
The trade Union is rotten by any standards, why not hit the nail on the head by saying we are also demanding 100% increment. You stink I.D.I.O.T.S
Empty…too much cowardise
Is this a joke! The whole thing sounds funny! Are thses guys par of PF or are they job seeker!
As a professional, I always yearn to get a job in Zambia and help with infrastructure implementation strategy; but when I look at the money being discussed herein; I feel it would be better to stay put. Just imagine a day when one would reveal that “these engineers are getting 50m zmk per month (tax free) for infrastructure planning; we would be killed!!
All crap!
Nonsense coated in syrup
LT, I COMMEND YOU FOR SEARCHING FOR NEW ITEMS OF NEWS EVERYDAY. IT USED BE THAT THE POST BROUGHT US FRESH NEWS ITEMS, BUT NOW THEY GIVE US “CHIMBALA” NEWS AS IT TAKES THEM A WEEK NOWADAYS BEFORE THEY GIVE US SOME NEW ITEM.
THUMBS UP!
BOOTLICKERS…
SO they only ‘noted’ that the president has doubled his salary at the expense of civil servants but will not do anything about it?
I am telling you guys next year it will be all corners of Zambia strikes.
these ZCTU people are useless they dont think properly…barely after 10months in office what has CNP and his minions done to this country to deserve such an increment? on top of that they have alot of allowances compared to most of us teachers. These fools should have said that we go on a strike not talking about next years budget.they should adjust our salaries as well not 15%rubbish compared to wht these fools…pama fi(pf) have given themselves 100% increments for doing nothing but employing satan”s relatves in foreign missions and GOVT. ABASH ZCTU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!useless people
Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for Sata.
Not to sound petty but what to expect from this chap clad in a shiny pink shirt… Probably his wifes.. You are what you wear…
It’s amazing how people can find time to write crap after crap. Just where do they get the time? That man in a borrowed pink shirt is a lunatic. Why not just say we want all civil servants to be given 100% pay rise after all CNP and group are civil servants and they have their 100% already. I rest my case!
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. ALL THE GIRL NEEDS IS 10 VOTES FROM EVERY ZAMBIAN EVERYDAY UP TO SUNDAY 06:00HRS, AND IT’LL SECURE!!!
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Why have stupid unions like this one,Hikaumba and your group you have failled the people.Please step down the Union has gone to dogs what a shame.100% vs 15% buuuuuushiiiiiit.
These people know they will be benefiting somehow from all this crap. This is to just shut the complaining masses. Otherwise no action will be taken. Its really a shame! People should learn to demonstrate(Toe Toe) like here in South Africa if nobody cares to listen. They are making your lives hard, so make theirs and their jobs hard too. Otherwise these politicians are just saying “lets give it some time. It will pass too just like everything else”
Cowardly staff. Twalimupela incito nomba ninshi muletina?
ZCTU has gone to the dogs, What a shame! such corwards. You should learn to call a spade a spade.The president and his ministers have increased their salaries by 100% and yet goverment workers were only given 15%. This should be condemned, why swallow words, We remember the ZCTU of FTJ, they could not have accepted this nonsense. Please ZCTU can you dissolve and join FFTUZ at least Joyce Nonde Simukoko can rule ZCTU properly.
He cant condemn sata because Roy is Bemba too.When Sata makes shit no one condemns him,but when he flip-flops and do something seemingly oky they applaud him.I want to hear the voice of ka Joice Nonde on this matter.
Sata is bigger, stronger and wiser than God!
Unionized employees y do u continue subscribing 2 stupid unions? Therez no more representation of u da employees at every level u can think about.
Therez no more representation of da employees. Unions dont exist anymore. @Wanu Ngwee cheap thinkin again shows up. How do start 2 campaign 4 yo girl friend Talia wen the matter at hand is abt governance!! Shame on u Grade 7 expectin to receive $300,000 whilst sleepn in bed and visiting da kitchen, toilets n telling hopeless stories. At yo age free money! No plan 4 yo career. Shame! Shame…. on u.
The union and the Govt must be transparent to the public service employees concerning negotiations and how far they have gone .Remember in Govt we get very little money which does not make any headway to our livelihood.Please look at the Housing situation we have suffered as civil servants.
Please tell us how far the negotiations for 2013 salary increaments have reached .Even on radio or news paper disclose – than keeping quite thinking and telling lies that all is well. Look ,we are your concerned members and employees to the civil service
Thank you
It is now too much for media talking about Health issues ,why cant they talk atleast about other ministries and non Govtal organisations.Can we be highligtened on the latest salary negotiations for 2013.
thank you