Patriotic Front Government eager to create jobs – Timothy Hakuyu

By Derrick Sinjela published on Monday 11^th July 2011

MINISTRY of Labour, Sports and Youth Permanent Secretary Timothy Hakuyu has said the Government is determined to create jobs and ensuring that they are, among others, decent and providing social protection.
And Hakuyu has reiterated that the Government of Zambia was making fair progress on the Decent Work Agenda (DWA) in Africa.
Officiating at the Zambia Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) Advisory Committee Meeting at Mika Lodge in Lusaka, Hakuyu boasted that the country had since ratified major International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions promoting fundamental principles and rights at work.
However, Hakuyu bemoaned that despite these positive strides, a number of
workers, particularly from the informal sector, did not benefit from the protection and entitlements that those conventions offered.

FQM workers rehabilitate the Chingola-Solwezi Road

“Many worker environments have little or no regard for workers’
rights, health and safety conditions. Additionally, the majority of
 workers are without basic forms of social protection.
The country needs job creation and the Government is eager to ensure that they met acceptable standards for the benefit of the workers. Zambia needs job creation and the Government is determined to ensure that these jobs are essentially decent, providing rights at work, social protection and social dialogue. It is satisfying to note that Zambia is
progressing fairly well on the decent work agenda in Africa. The ILO Africa regional meeting was held early this
month in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the Africans took stock of, among other things, the progress made in achieving the 17 targets set in the 2007 to 2015 decent work agenda for Africa. Zambia is highlighted in the report as one of the few countries that
are on good track. This is encouraging but much more needs to be
done. The DWCP provided a vital rights-based lens for
assessing and analysing issues affecting the labour market in Zambia, adding that now that the 2007 to 2011 DWCP was coming to an end in December this year, determining the programme priorities was a major stage in the development of the 2012 to 2015 DWCP,” an optimistic Hakuyu acknowledged.
ILO Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique Office Director Martin Clemensson observed that revolutions in some parts of the world had started from claims of decent work, pointing out that Zambia was not spared from issues of employment, jobless growth and the respect for workers’ rights which were at the centre of the just-ended elections.
Clemensson recognized several challenges recorded in the 2007-2011 DWCP from which lessons should be drawn, stressing  that for the employee empowerment programme to be successful, ownership of the DWCP by the Government, the workers and the employers needed to take centre stage.
And Zambia Federation of Employers (ZFE) Executive Director Harrington Chibanda expressed sadness at the increasing work stoppages obtaining in some parts of the country, saying that was not in the spirit of social dialogue which was among the four pillars of the 2007-2011 DWCP.
Chibanda, a DWCP Advisory Committee Chairperson,
challenged the Government and the labour movement to take a leadership role by looking into that matter as it was detrimental to
the country’s economic development.
Zambia Congress of  Trade Unions (ZCTU) Research Department Deputy Director Mwenya Kapasa outlined some successes and challenges scored in the ending programme and cited social protection as one of the areas of concern which workers needed to be sensitised about “from the word go” not after they retired.

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