. Shamenda

By TIMES REPORTER –
LABOUR and Social Security Minister Fackson Shamenda has urged the labour movement in Zambia to ignore the recently-signed Statutory Instrument purporting to revise the retirement age from 55 to 65 years.
Mr Shamenda said nothing had been agreed yet on the revision of the retirement age and that was the reason the proposal had been pending in late President Michael Sata’s office for more than one year.
What had been informally agreed was to revise the retirement age so that workers take early retirement at 55, normal retirement at 60 and late retirement at 65, but even that was only a proposal,” Mr Shamenda said.
“The Statutory Instrument was wrongly signed. We have not agreed on anything about revising the retirement age. You the labour movement are justified to raise questions about this issue.”
The Labour minister, who was speaking at Fairmount Hotel in Livingstone during the 14th Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) quadrennial conference, said the Government would continue consulting over the revision of the retirement age.
The quadrennial conference is being held under the theme ‘Promoting economic transformation and social justice through strong unions, decent work and employment creation’.
Mr Sata had shelved the proposal based on response it received from major stakeholders and it would be betraying the trust of the labour movement and others if the proposal was signed into law without their authority.
Mr Shamenda also clarified that the reinstatement of the 570 nurses who participated in an illegal strike was not a campaign gimmick by the ruling party but an indication that the Government had listened to the health workers who had shown remorse about their actions.
He said the nurses breached their employment agreement but that the due process of the law had taken its course, adding that the Government hoped the episode would serve as a lesson to other public service workers who made decisions influenced by people with selfish motives.
Mr Shamenda also assured stakeholders in the labour sector that the Government was in the process of reforming labour laws to ensure such vices as casualisation were completely done away with.
The revision of the minimum wage for domestic workers was an indication that the Government meant well for workers in all categories, especially the least-paid.
ZCTU president Leonard Hikaumba said the spirit of consultation must be encouraged in the labour movement and that the Government must not pay lip service to the demands of the workers.