Respect workers’ rights, YALI tells chain stores

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 13:45:26 +0000

By FLAVIOR CHISHALA KANUNGO

THE Young African Leaders Initiate (YALI) has called for respect of workers’ rights in chain stores if foreign investment is to yield fruits in Zambia

YALI governance advisor Isaac Mwanza said it is disappointing for Pick n’ Pay Zambia management to offer K200 payrise to its workers.

Mr Mwanza said his organisation was aware of how much the foreign investors were making out of the sweat of Zambians, adding that paying peanuts to their workers was not serving the purpose of why Zambia wanted to bring foreign investors.

Unionised workers at Pick n’ Pay Zambia on Friday staged a sit-in protest at various outlets, paralysing operations of the supermarket countrywide.

The workers were demanding a salary increment of between K500 and K1, 000 but management had only offered a K200 pay rise.

Mr Mwanza said investors should realise that they were in the country to uplift the standards and the wellbeing of people as well do business that could make them profit.

“It does not make sense for an investor to come to our country and pay peanuts to our people, use their labour in vain and go back with a lot of profit Government must be alert with such investors especially the chain stores like Shoprite and Pick n’ Pay,” Mr Mwanza said.

He said with the current economic shocks being experienced it was an unacceptable for workers who had families to receive such a low increment.

He said the minister of Labour and Social Security must ensure that workers’ rights were protected at all costs as opposed to defending employers which had been the case in the recent past.

Mr Mwanza said other foreign investors must also learn from what is happening at Pick’ ‘n’ Pay that when workers are pressured, they down tools because that is their constitutional right.

He said workers must be treated in a more humane manner and share the profit being made equally adding that if the workers did not benefit from the profit it would defeat the whole purpose of having investors.

He said Investments that did not consider human capital, resource and development was not good investment therefore investors must realise that they were not only investing their money into a business that would give them profit but also to develop the human resource.