The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) says the announcement of the revised minimum wage by labor minister Fackson Shamenda is surprising because they were made outside the tripartite arrangement.

ZCTU secretary general Roy Mwaba has said that ZCTU is surprised as to why the minister went ahead to make the announcement despite the last tripartite meeting agreeing to partner and come up with technical committee to come up with recommendations to government.

Mr. Mwaba told QFM that the revision of the minimum wage is long over-due but stated that it is not the basis of the minister to go ahead and work against what was agreed as a tripartite.

However, Mr Fackson Shamenda said that Government consulted extensively before implementing the new minimum wage and conditions of employment for domestic, shop keepers and general workers.

Mr Shamenda said in Kitwe yesterday that Government and other stakeholders had conclusively discussed the matter, hence the new wages and conditions of employment being announced on Wednesday this week.

The minister was reacting to Zambia Federation of Employers (ZFE) president, Alfred Masupha, who on Wednesday claimed that Government’s decision was arbitrary.

Mr Masupha was quoted as saying that ZFE believed a sector based minimum wage could have been more appropriate to protect investment from collapse.

But Mr Shamenda said implementing the new legislation on sector basis was not tenable because the arrangement was complicated.

Mr Shamenda urged all stakeholders to be honest, maintaining that there was input from tripartite partners.

“That is my idea, so Mr Masupha should not come out like he is the one who initiated it. We looked at industry by industry process. It is complicated,” Mr Shamenda said.

He said a meeting was called at which all submissions were made and therefore saw no reason why Mr Masupha was against the upward revision.

[pullquote]“That is my idea, so Mr Masupha should not come out like he is the one who initiated it. We looked at industry by industry process. It is complicated,” Mr Shamenda said.[/pullquote]

Mr Shamenda, who was speaking when he officiated at the Safety and health exhibition, accused Mr Masupha of being a “let down” to the workers.

He alleged that the ZFE president had failed to improve the workers’ welfare.

The minister said Government would not entertain anyone out to frustrate the implementation of the Statutory Instrument.

Meanwhile, various interest groups have commended Government for revising the minimum wage and conditions of employment.

The Federation of Free Trade Unions in Zambia (FFTUZ) and the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) have welcomed the upward revision of the minimum wage for the workers.

FFTUZ president Joyce Nonde-Simukoko said in an interview yesterday that domestic, general and shop workers had been exploited for a long time and the move by Government to adjust their wages was a step in the right direction.

CSPR Information Management and Communication Programme Officer Diana Ngula said in statement that it was good that Government had finally adjusted the minimum wage.

Ms Ngula said the adjustment was reasonable as studies by the Central Statistical Office and the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection’s monthly basic needs basket reveal that an employee should at least earn over K1 million.

On Wednesday, Mr Shamenda announced the upward adjustment of the minimum wages and conditions of employment for domestic, shop and general workers by 100 per cent.

Domestic workers’ salaries have increased from K250,000 to K420,000 as basic pay and transport allowance of K102,400 translating into a total of K520,400.

Shop workers whose minimum wage was at K419, 000 now increases to K1, 132, 400 with a breakdown of K700, 000 basic salary and 30 per cent housing allowance, transport allowance of K102, 400 and K120, 000 lunch allowance.

Similar conditions for shop workers would also apply for other general workers

[QFM/Times of Zambia]

Enjoy this weeks poems!!
I FOUND A LOVE by Yvy-apple Winter

I found a love that nullifies everything I believe as the way I should live
A love that amplifies nothing except this love I have found
I found a love untouched by man,
A love that built walls around our hearts, building a world where only he and I exist.
I found a love that I know I stand to lose but it is a love I stand to forget not,
A love that I would relive every day for the rest of my life,
A love that I would watch replayed despite knowing the end was told to be sad for the highs were higher than the final low.
I found a love I have named the greatest love of my life,
A love that makes me say, if I could, I would,
I would climb the seemingly infinite staircase to heaven-the adjustment bureau,
To ask the father to write me down in the book of love as the love of your life and you, as the love of mine,
I would be your souls mate not the accquaintant I will be,
I would ask the father of love to write us down in the book of the afterlife as soul mates,
But here on earth, he should allow me breathe my last in your arms while you in mine in a single moment for one more breath without you would be wasted.
You maybe Mr. Wrong but I love you in all the right ways, angels agree, they do!
I found a love that taught me the two sides of truth,
A side that tells it and a side that calls one to have the courage to face the hurt it may cause but through the hurt watch my love unperturbed,
A love that showed me love is love whether he is present or absent,
A love that taught me to overlook offences, to choose to forgive,
To learn to live with what I cannot forget and never breathe a word of it,
A love that taught me that sometimes the glue in love is more of what we do not say of the others’ flaws than what we do say,
A love that taught me the art of loving a man and he that of loving a woman,
To breathe free and to live Wild-untamed,
I saw Gods face,
It was a love I loved and when we parted,
It was a love that stayed and it will never leave for it is in me And of me…

FIRE AND ICE by Subila Esperanza Chilupula

Earth, Wind, Fire and Water; Elements of old
Gaea, Aeolus, Hephaestus, Poseidon; Rulers of the elements, mighty and bold
Lady Libra; Grace, poise and her set of scales
Her duty, to maintain the balance, of which she never fails
To every mortal an element and deity assigned
To which their capabilities are matched and designed
Just as it were Eve and not Steve for Adam as a mate
No mortals of the same element can correlate

I a daughter of Libra was named the ice queen for I was born of water
Heart so cruel and cold, ruthless, I never did falter
Lo and behold of love my stone heart did taste
And like a snowball in the morning sun, my heart did thaw in haste
For I met my mortal my match, gift from the gods divine
At the first touch, I knew he was mine
Ruled by the deity Hephaestus,
He was of fire, the fiercest element, its aid Aeolus
He too was ruthless
Always strived for the best, nothing less
To him, I was the best
For I challenged him unlike the rest
He consumed my cold heart ’til it melted
Filled me with such passion it left me demented
Like the yin and yang, so different yet so complete when joined in totality
We are of fire and ice; never meant to combine but together are of absolute quality
It’s the tango of a wild fire of the prairie
The salsa of a great oceanic tsunami

When angry, starved and overwhelmed with emotion
My lover seeks the cool solace of my arms and like the Atlantic Ocean
I wash over him cooling his anger, his hunger fed
And like a dormant volcano he lies besides me, quiet, waiting to be reawakened
When my ice cold waters of worry overflow and threaten to drown me
My cold heart aching, eyes covered in a fog of despair so thick I can no longer see
I seek the warmth of my lover’s embrace
Slowly he heats my icy sorrows with a soft but sure caress
’til my troubles begin to evaporate, sublime
With them I soar high up to the climax of mount Olympus lost in a different time
And slowly just as it began, I return to the here and now
Knowing that I will return to that utopia somehow

Fire and ice, neither to the other is kin
But when joined together seem to be of one skin
The phoenix, attribute of fire brings healing
The dragon, a distant relative uses breaths of fire for killing
Snow, frozen lakes, born of water, the penguin and polar bear’s lair
Ice-burgs, every pirate and sailor’s nightmare
Of dinosaurs we hath heard, beast so wild and savage
Alas Poseidon drove them to extinction at the dawn of the ice-age
The fire-age is yet to be for of hell and torment whether pagan or religious we all hath heard
And of its bottomless pits of eternal flames that sinners dread
Earth, Wind, Fire and Water; Elements of old
Gaea, Aeolus, Hephaestus, Poseidon; Rulers of the elements, mighty and bold
But fire and ice are the fiercest of the fold

VIOLETS IN RED by Mete Banda

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
But is that entirely true?
I know not of roses blue,
Or comely violets red,
But of the colors switched instead.

I’ve seen roses yellow,
And violets too,
What would those to my endeavor do?

Huumm, roses in blue,
would it mean?
A feat by nature yet to be seen.

Violets in red,
What joy would it bring,
Would it at least her stern heart sting?

By Kapa187

Government says the 10 % appreciation of the Kwacha against the dollar is an indication that the investor community still has confidence in the country’s investment climate under the Patriotic front administration.

Deputy Minister of Finance Miles Sampa says even the government decision to come up with a statutory instrument to ban the use of the dollar in the local transactions is meant to strengthen the Kwacha against the major foreign currencies.

Mr. Sampa has however noted the need for the government for the appreciation of the Kwacha to be monitored to prevent the currency from becoming too strong against the dollar.

The minister adds that a very strong Kwacha would make Zambia’s exports expensive a situation he says would affect the performance of the local industries which export goods to other countries.

Mr. Sampa was speaking during the launch of the National Strategy on Financial education for Zambia in Lusaka this morning.

Mr. Sampa observed there is need for financial education to be promoted to enable the citizens acquire good financial management skills that will impact positively on the country’s economic development.

Earlier Bank of Zambia deputy governor of operations Bwalya Ng’andu noted that access to financial services in the country still among the adult population stands at only 37.3% adding that there is need for more people to begin accessing such services.

Dr. Ng’andu adds that there is financial literacy among the people of Zambia to be scaled up adding that financial sector development plan also seeks to improve among other things to develop a rural finance policy and strategy to increase access to financial services to the rural population.

And minister of Education Dr. John Phiri observed that the Ministry of Education is also working on modalities that will ensure that financial education is incorporated into the country’s education system

The Zambia Federation of Employers (ZFE) has said that it is disappointed with the Minister of Labour Fackson Shamenda for going ahead to announce the revised minimum wage without consulting stakeholders.

ZFE president Alfred Masupha said that his Federation and the Labour movement are dumfounded over the development as they were still waiting on Government to consult them on the way forward.

Mr. Masupha said he was shocked to hear that the Minister had announced the revised minimum wage in the media.

He stated that it was agreed after the tripartite council meeting held by the Ministry of Labour, the Federation of Employers and the labour movement that a technical committee be formed that would consult widely on the matter before a resolution was arrived at.

Mr. Masupha said it is regrettable that the Minister decided to play it alone and even allegedly disregarded guidelines in his ministry that call for wide consultation before a statutory instrument is issued.

He wondered if it was right for the minister to announce a statutory instrument without consulting stakeholders.

[pullquote]Mr. Masupha said this was the first time that a cabinet minister had gone ahead without involving the affected parties to issue a statutory instrument.[/pullquote]

Mr. Masupha said this was the first time that a cabinet minister had gone ahead without involving the affected parties to issue a statutory instrument.

He said the federation of employers is not happy with the manner the minister had done things because the move would generate into loss of confidence in the federation of employers and the labour movement.

The ZFE president said the alleged antagonism that the Minister has created between Government, the federation of employers and the labour movement has the potential to stifle the confidence that investors have in the country.

He said the federation had done everything possible to win the confidence of employers by ensuring that there was sanity in the employment sector but that with this new way of doing things, the situation compromises everything.

Mr. Masupha said the current situation will require that Government, the federation of employers and the labour movement sit down to sort out the soiled industrial relations between the three parties.

Mr. Shamenda announced the revised minimum wages and conditions of employment acts for various categories of workers following the amendment of statutory instruments order 2011 No. 1 of 2011, order 2011 No. 2 of 2011 and order 2011 No. 3 of 2011.

QFM

Chief Government Spokesperson Kennedy Sakeni has said that UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema has failed to show the relevance of his politics to the Zambian people by launching unwarranted attacks on the PF administration.

Mr Sakeni who is also Information and Broadcasting Minister said that Mr Hichilema’s bitterness is manifesting through his words and actions.

He said that the UPND leader again shamelessly paraded his bitterness to the media who are by now getting bored with his monotonous press briefings.

Mr Sakeni said that attempts by Mr Hichilema to divert government’s attention from the real issues have failed and his bitterness and frustrations are now beginning to manifest.

He said this in a statement released to ZNBC news in Lusaka on yesterday.

Mr Sakeni said that government will not waste time responding to what he termed egotistic ranting of a bitter man.

He said Mr Hichilema’s lie that President Sata is travelling frequently is embarrassing.

Mr Sakeni said that President Sata has spent more time at home addressing the challenges left by the misrule of the former regime.

He says Mr Hichilema’s attacks on his fellow opposition are a result of even more bitterness because he has only managed to recruit MMD president Nevers Mumba to his bitter gang.

Mr Sakeni says Zambians are finding Mr Hichilema’s claims amusing especially his futile attempts to make people believe that the UPND is growing.

He said Mr Hichilema’s tribal and bitter approach to national matters will shred his political fortunes even before the 2016 general elections.

Mr Sakeni has urged Zambians to ignore Mr Hichilema’s poisonous hatred and bitterness as this will not take the country anywhere.

He has called on all Zambians to continue their support to the PF government in its efforts to address the problems left by the former regime.

Mr Hichilema has been an ardent critic of President Michael Sata’s government.

ZNBC

Republican President Michael Sata has said that government has no plans to curtail the powers of the paramount Chief Litunga of western Province.

Mr. Sata said that there are some opposition leaders in the country spreading rumors that government is working on a piece of legislation that will reduce the powers of The Litunga.

The head of state has indicated that the Litunga is no exception from the other o paramount chiefs in the country and that the government will not waste its time coming up with legislation to target an individual traditional leader.

Mr. Sata has since urged government officials and the newly appointed deputy minister of education Patrick Ngoma in particular to ensure that they explain government policies to the people of Zambia.

The President was speaking at statehouse this morning when he swore in Mr. Ngoma as deputy minister in the ministry of Education.

And Mr. Sata has urged Mr. Ngoma to work with his colleagues in the ministry of education in trying to improve the quality of education especially in the rural areas.

The President has observed the need for the government to also improve access to education in the country adding that government also plans to abolish the basic education system in the country.

Meanwhile, first lady Dr. Christine Kaseba- Sata has donated a Higer Luxury bus to St. Monica’s secondary school of eastern Province.

Handing over the bus at statehouse on behalf of the first lady, President Sata said Dr. Kaseba will also identify other schools in the country that are in need for transport facilities.

QFM