Create employment ZUFIAW calls on government - January 2012

By Meluse Kapatamoyo

With less than one million people in formal employment, the Zambia Union of Financial and Allied Workers (ZUFIAW) says employment creation should be government’s priority in 2012.

In an interview with MyWage Zambia, Union president Cephas Mukuka said, "It is a sad situation because less than one million workers out of a population of 13 million have the burden of maintaining roads, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure."

In addition to creating employment, there was a backlog of retirees and retrenchees, all waiting to receive their benefits. 

He said if it meant borrowing to ensure that the former workers were paid, government needed to take that initiative, unlike the current situation where a worker who retired at age 55 had to wait 10 years before getting their benefits.

Clear debts to workers

"Since government is always borrowing, this time around they can borrow in order to clear off these retirees and retrenchees. This should be priority number one because these are people who contributed towards national development. The current scenario is that by the time the pension is being paid, the money is already committed to shylocks. They remain with nothing and continue to beg." 

However, Mukuka described the year ending 2011 as very successful for the union which managed to clinch a K2 million salary increase across the board for its members at Finance Bank. The figure translated to a 100 percent increase, the first of its kind in Zambia.

"We have 32 financial institutions affiliated to us, so the union is on the negotiating table 32 times a year. And I can proudly say we negotiated successfully for all our members. ZUFIAW is also extremely proud that while the SADC protocol demands that 50 percent of positions of influence should go to women, in ZUFIAW, over 60 percent of women hold such positions."

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Find out more about Trade Unions in Zambia.