Curb exploitation of workers in some companies, says labour expert

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 14:26:03 +0000

By SIABANA KELVIN

A COPPERBELT based labour expert Matthews Mwenya has appealed to the employers particularly some private companies in the country to stop exploiting their employees by  paying low salaries.

Mr Mwenya said it was unfortunate that some employers have taken advantage of the lack of employment opportunities by subjecting their workers to slavery and meagre wages that cannot sustain them.

He said that it was a common trend among some private firms in the country who have continued to disrespect the rights of their workers by not paying them adequately.

Mr Mwenya said many people in some private institutions work long hours without proper incentives.

He said in spite of the non-availability of new job opportunities in the country, there was need for private companies to consider the well-being of the workers because they were important to the growth of the respective companies they worked for.

The labour expert said in some private firms, workers consecutively for seven days without going on a day off because once they did so their employers would either suspend or fire them, a situation which was against the labour laws.

Mr Mwenya said that the workers who were exploited by their employers  in many forms were scared to report to relevant authorities for fear of losing employment.

”A worker should be respected by any employer because without workers, the company cannot develop and a demotivated worker cannot concentrate on work when the  morale of working is low,” Mr Mwenya said.

The Copperbelt labour expert added that the workers in some private sectors were working for the sake of survival.

He said currently the country was undergoing economic challenges, hence the workers needed to be paid better wages for them to live a decent life.

Mr.  Mwenya said the country could only develop economically if the workers in some private companies were empowered with better conditions of services.

He said  there was need for the  Ministry of Labour to strengthen the labour laws in the country in order for some companies in the private sector to be compelled to pay their workers better wages.

Mr Mwenya said the standards of living in Zambia was very high and that workers in some private sectors were failing to make ends meet on a daily basis because the money they got was too little.