Group urges government to expedite law on proliferation of trade unions

The Movement for Restoration of Teachers Affairs (MORETA) Zambia has called on the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to expedite the development of a Statutory Instrument (SI) aimed at addressing the proliferation of trade unions in the country, which currently stands at 18 labour movements.

Labour and Social Security Minister, Brenda Tambatamba, recently announced that a draft Statutory Instrument had been developed, following extensive consultations, and would soon be presented for further discussion.

In a statement issued in Lusaka on Tuesday, MORETA Zambia Executive Director, Dr. Sam Mbumba, expressed delight that the government had finally responded to long-standing calls from stakeholders on the matter.

Mbumba said that for the past four years, this had been a consistent message from MORETA and other stakeholders who had “never rested preaching about it.”

“We wondered why this faulter could not receive any attention especially after seeing how teachers were abandoning classrooms to form unions, which they proudly called a ‘lucrative business’ and saw as a quicker option to make money,” he said.

Mbumba questioned how the government could allow 18 trade unions in one industry, describing the situation as a vulnerability that “chancers should abuse.”

He also commended the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) for collaborating with well-meaning unions who, upon receiving MORETA’s consistent message, took up the issue with the Labour Commissioner’s office.

“Now today we are seeing the light with hope that the drafted SI will surely receive maximum support from all stakeholders. This indeed places ZCTU to a befitting unions mother body position,” Mbumba said.

He recalled that a year ago, MORETA Zambia petitioned Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti on the same matter but never received a response.

“We further got invited to the Livingstone meeting for all trade unions, where upon making our strong submissions we became unpopular as some excited unions rose against us almost to a near punch,” Mbumba said.

He added that most teacher trade unions did not want MORETA Zambia to champion the agenda of saying “NO!” to proliferation because of selfish personal interests they did not want interfered with.

“We can mention their names. All in all, now that government has taken it up, we remain hopeful that sanity will surely prevail soon. Unionism was surely going to die silently while workers’ rights were going to be silenced,” Mbumba said.

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