Malawi - 2011

Population:
Capital: Lilongwe
The Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) complained that points tabled by the unions and agreed to in tripartite negotiations were missing from the final draft of the amended Employment Act. A MCTU march was stopped by police due to a technicality. Collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
is strenuous, and striking workers are not protected against reprisals.
ILO Core Conventions Ratified:
29 Forced Labour (1930) 87 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) 98 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) 100 Equal Remuneration for Work of Equal Value (1951) 105 Abolition of Forced Labour (1957) 111 Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (1958) 138 Minimum Age for Employment (1973) 182 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (1999)

reported violations - 2011

Murders: none reported
Attempted Murders: none reported
Threats: none reported
Injuries: none reported
Arrests: none reported
Imprisonments: none reported
Dismissals: none reported
Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

Background

In August the first local elections in more than a decade were postponed again. The trade unions organised a national protest in November against a bill to set the retirement age above average life expectancy. More than half the population still lives below the poverty line and tens of thousands of Malawians die of AIDS every year.
ILO Core Conventions Ratified:
29 Forced Labour (1930) 87 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) 98 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) 100 Equal Remuneration for Work of Equal Value (1951) 105 Abolition of Forced Labour (1957) 111 Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (1958) 138 Minimum Age for Employment (1973) 182 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (1999)
Population:
Capital: Lilongwe

reported violations- 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

Trade union rights in law

There is some legal protection for trade union activities, although some gaps remain in the labour law. Workers, including civil servants, have the right to form and join trade unions, and workers sacked because of their union activities must be reinstated. However, unions seeking to bargain collectively face inordinately high representation thresholds. In addition, industrial councils set wages and conditions and resolve disputes in the absence of collective agreements. Only registered unions may strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike , and the procedures prior to a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike can be long. Furthermore, all labour disputes must be reported to the Principal Secretary responsible for labour, who shall acknowledge the dispute within seven days and then refer it to conciliation conciliation An attempt by a neutral third party, a conciliator, to aid the settling of an industrial dispute by improving communications, offering advice and interpreting issues to bring the disputing parties to a point where they can reconcile their differences. The conciliator does not take as active a role as a mediator or an arbitrator.

See arbitration, mediation , which can last up to 21 days. Furthermore, the law does not specifically prohibit retaliation against strikers.
Additional information regarding the legislation
ILO Core Conventions Ratified:
29 Forced Labour (1930) 87 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) 98 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) 100 Equal Remuneration for Work of Equal Value (1951) 105 Abolition of Forced Labour (1957) 111 Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (1958) 138 Minimum Age for Employment (1973) 182 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (1999)
Population:
Capital: Lilongwe

reported violations - 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

In practice

Employer resistance: Barely 12% of workers are in formal employment. For the small minority in formal jobs, the resistance of some employers and the government towards respecting their rights, limits freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework and collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
. Speaking to the press in June 2009 Ronald Mbewe, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), said most employers were reluctant to work with trade unions. His views were echoed by Mary Dzinyemba, general secretary for Commercial Industrial and Allied Workers Union (CIAWU), who said employers preferred to have workers who were ignorant of their rights. Many companies in the export processing zones (EPZ export processing zone A special industrial area in a country where imported materials are processed before being re-exported. Designed to attract mostly foreign investors by offering incentives such as exemptions from certain trade barriers, taxes, business regulations, and/or labour laws. ) also resist union activity, while the unions complain that they have little access to workers in the zones.
No collective bargaining for informal sector workers: Workers in the informal economy have organised themselves into a union, the Malawi Union for the Informal Sector (MUFIS), and have been affiliated to the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU). It took over two years to register MUFIS with the Ministry of Labour as they noted that the union had no negotiating partner. The MCTU has, in recent years, reported on a number of cases where workers have been badly mistreated and where employers have appeared unaware that workers have employment rights by law.
Child and bonded labour on tobacco plantations: A documentary made for Britain’s Channel 4 programme “Unreported World” aired in June 2010, highlighting the ongoing use of child labour in tobacco harvesting. A group of women and children, some just toddlers, were filmed sorting tobacco leaves at the side of the road. One woman with three children helping her said that she would earn around one euro for the day’s work. Many tenant farmers also suffer from very low wages and have to borrow money from the farm owners. They end up in debt, becoming bonded labourers. Child labour is illegal in Malawi, but is tolerated by the authorities. There are no trade union rights for child or bonded labourers.
ILO Core Conventions Ratified:
29 Forced Labour (1930) 87 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) 98 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) 100 Equal Remuneration for Work of Equal Value (1951) 105 Abolition of Forced Labour (1957) 111 Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (1958) 138 Minimum Age for Employment (1973) 182 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (1999)
Population:
Capital: Lilongwe

reported violations - 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

Violations

Tripartite decisions not respected: The Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) protested in July against the newly adopted Employment Act (Amendment) bill, saying it discriminated against lower paid workers. It also protested that several of the concerns raised by trade unions were not accommodated in the final document and that some of the clauses agreed on in tripartite discussions were changed in the final document.
Police stop trade union march: On 16 November the police stopped a march by the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) to present a petition to parliament urging it not to go ahead with the Pensions Bill. The bill would raise the retirement age to 55 for women and 60 for men, in a country where average life expectancy is only 50 years. The police claimed that the Lilongwe City Council had failed to give the police due notice of the march. The march went ahead two days later.
Government interference: The Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) wrote to the Minister of Labour, Yunus Bussa, in December protesting at remarks he had made saying the MCTU was acting at the instigation of Vice-president, Joyce Banda. Mr. Bussa was referring to the march organised by the MCTU in November against the bill to raise the pension age. The MCTU objected strongly to this act of interference in their affairs and the use of false allegations to make it a political scapegoat. It said it had never discussed the bill with the Vice-president.
ILO Core Conventions Ratified:
29 Forced Labour (1930) 87 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) 98 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) 100 Equal Remuneration for Work of Equal Value (1951) 105 Abolition of Forced Labour (1957) 111 Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (1958) 138 Minimum Age for Employment (1973) 182 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (1999)
Population:
Capital: Lilongwe

reported violations - 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher
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