MOST truck drivers are getting paid salaries that are way below the minimum wages of K3, 000 because transporters feel they can treat them anyway they like, Southern African Development Community (SADC) Truck Drivers Association of Zambia has said.
Association Secretary General Jackson Banda said some drivers have been getting paid as low as K1, 800 which was way below what was stipulated in the laws.
Mr Banda said transporters had not been following the stipulated laws the government had put in place in the way that they treat the truck drivers which was a great concern to the association.
“Our drivers have been getting indecent wages and the transporters use mobile money to pay them you can imagine. These people feel like they can treat us anyway they like and easily relieve us of our duties whenever we try to complain,” said Mr Banda.
Mr Banda therefore called on the government to put in place stiff measures to help enforce the laws to ensure that transporters abide by the rules.
He said the transporters were currently not following laws because the government had not done much in ensuring that they were enforced.
And Mr Banda disclosed that most of the truck drivers were operating without contracts.
He said this had also contributed to the current situation where most drivers were working under illegal conditions which was not supposed to be the case.
Mr Banda said another reason why most transporters were relaxed about making the drivers to sign contracts was because they were also scared of having to pay them government stipulated wages.
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