Zambia - 2011

Population:
Capital: Lusaka
While the Zambian government courts the Chinese and welcomes their heavy investment in the country, there is growing concern over Chinese employers’ attitudes to their workers and harsh response to organised protest. In one incident 11 miners were shot and two seriously injured. The Revenue Authority continued to delay and effectively deny recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. of an independent workers’ union. The right to 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 is severely limited in law.
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

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

Background

China’s involvement in Zambia deepened in February when the two countries signed a mining cooperation agreement and a deal to set up a joint economic zone. This was followed in August by an agreement with China to build a second hydro-electric power plant on the Kafue River. Zambia is now worse off than in 1970, partly due to HIV/AIDS, according to the UN’s Human Development Index. The disease has decimated Zambia’s professionals, including engineers and politicians, and malaria remains a major problem. Millions of Zambians live below the World Bank poverty threshold of USD 1 a day.
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: Lusaka

reported violations- 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

Trade union rights in law

A number of limitations on trade union rights apply despite initial guarantees. While the Constitution provides for 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 , there can only be one union per industry. Furthermore, workers in the prison service, judges, court registrars and magistrates are excluded from the Industrial and Labour Relations Act, and the Minister also has discretionary powers to exclude certain categories of workers from the scope of the Act.

While the right to 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 secured, it is almost impossible to call a lawful 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 , as all strikes are subject to a long series of procedural requirements. Strikes can also be discontinued if found by the court not to be “in the public interest”. Police officers can arrest workers without needing a warrant if they are believed to be on 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 in an essential service, the list of which exceeds the ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights definition.

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: Lusaka

reported violations - 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

In practice

Unions facing difficult conditions and growing casualisation: Former Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) President, Fackson Shamenda, observed that trade unions in the country were operating under difficult conditions, given the political climate, the economic situation and consequent job losses. Meanwhile the Labour and Social Security Minister, Austin Liato, publically criticised some employers for using temporary workers to fill traditionally permanent positions simply to avoid paying statutory employment benefits to workers, leading to growing casualisation casualisation The practice of increasing the flexibility of the workforce by replacing permanent, full-time workers with workers on temporary, irregular contracts. and making union organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. all the more difficult.
Government intimidation: In September, the General Secretary of the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia (MUZ), Oswell Munyenyembe, protested that the government intimidated the union whenever it spoke out on issues affecting miners. Matters came to a head after the MUZ repeatedly voiced concerns about the government’s decision to allow Vale, a Brazilian mining giant, to start operating in Zambia. The government disregarded the union’s concerns and instead accused it of being used by the opposition. The MUZ pointed out it did not need the opposition to tell it to defend miners’ interests. The MUZ’s views and concerns about Vale were based on the company’s record of mistreating workers at mines it operated in other countries.
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: Lusaka

reported violations - 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

Violations

Protesting mineworkers shot:

Eleven miners at the Chinese-owned Collum coal mine in Zambia’s Sinazongwe district were shot and injured on 15 October by Chinese managers. Two miners were in a critical condition after they were shot in the chest and head, requiring surgery in Lusaka. The others were treated at the local hospital before being sent home.

The shootings happened after the miners raised concerns over safety and low pay at the mine with their managers. The miners were awaiting an address from Mr Sifuniso Nyumbu, President of the Gemstones and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (GAWUZ). The protest was also supported by the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ). Miners’ interviewed said they lacked face masks and safety shoes and in many instances had to wear their own clothes on duty. They were being paid ZMK 500,000 (USD 100) a month and paying about ZMK 100,000 (USD 20) to rent mud-walled huts lacking basic facilities. The MUZ had warned about the dangerous operating conditions and lack of proper clothing for its workers and criticised the “slave wages” paid to locals.

Two supervisors at the Collum coal mine, Xiao Li Shan and Wu Jiu Hua, were charged with attempted murder and remanded in custody. The government brokered a temporary deal providing a better basic wage plus housing and transport allowances, pending a negotiated agreement between the union and the mine. Mine managers had already showed a poor reputation for respecting workers’ rights. In July, two miners at the site were beaten and one of them hospitalised after four Chinese supervisors attacked them for allegedly failing to meet production targets.

Union denied recognition: The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has consistently used delaying tactics to effectively deny recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. of an independent workers’ union. The Zambia Union of Financial Institutions and Allied Workers (ZUFIAW) has been fighting for recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. by the ZRA for over ten years. Workers complied with a mediation mediation A process halfway between conciliation and arbitration, in mediation a neutral third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement to an industrial dispute by suggesting possible, non-binding solutions.

See arbitration, conciliation ruling in March 2009 whereby those who wished to resign from the employer’s in-house union, the Zambia Revenue Authority Workers’ Union (ZRAWU), had to write a formal letter to the general secretary. In November 2009, the ZUFIAW submitted a recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. agreement. In January 2010, ZRA responded by demanding that employees who had joined ZUFIAW also write personal letters to management, which they duly did. The ZRA dragged its feet for months eventually informing ZUFIAW that recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. would have to wait until they had consulted with other stakeholders due to the sensitive nature of the ZRA. The ZUFIAW pointed out that it already represented workers in other “sensitive” institutions such as banks and questioned the need to consult stakeholders, seeing this move by management as yet another means to stall recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. .
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: Lusaka

reported violations - 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher
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