By SYCORAX TIYESA NDHLOVU –

WORKERS salaries, conditions of service and living standards can remarkably be improved if workers belong to trade unions.
It is for this reason that workers fight hard for improved conditions of service just to improve their welfare.
Ester Muhango says the article ‘What is your 2015 career resolution’ which appeared under this column last week appealed to her heart very much.
Ms Muhango who works at a filling station in Lusaka asked this writer to guide her on how best she can achieve her career development expectations.
The current situation where most workers are almost on slave wages, paltry monthly salaries and poor conditions of service can be blamed firstly on workers themselves and secondly on trade unions.
However, in some cases, a government can deliberately weaken trade unionism in a country through some pieces of legislation which prohibit effective representation of workers.
In Zambia, it appears a law that allows a trade or a sector to have more than one union has contributed to divide and rule approach in trade unionism.
It was argued that having more than one trade union in a sector facilitates effective understanding of issues affecting specific workers in that sector; and therefore contributes to effective representation of such workers to top management or the Government.
But it has also been argued that it is the multiplicity of trade-related unions in one sector or trade that has contributed to a weak and divided trade unionism in this country.
In this analysis, the government of the day, as the Mother of all citizens in the country should take keen interest in what is happening between workers and their respective trade unions with a view to boost workers’  in order to increase workers’ productivity in the country.
Considering that there is a loose arrangement between workers and trade unions on one hand; and that there is also a loose arrangement between trade unions and government on the other hand, some local and foreign investors, for whatever reasons, also don’t allow their respective workers to form or belong to any trade union.
As a result, it appears most workers in certain ranks and categories don’t seem to be interested in forming or joining a respective trade union.
And surprisingly, for whatever reasons, most respective trade unions and Zambia Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) in general also seem incapacitated to vigorously conduct recruitment drive; and promotion of effective trade unionism to improve workers’ conditions.
While Government has done a recommendable job to increase monthly salaries for civil servants, the same government through the labour ministry seems to have done very little to improve workers’ salaries and conditions of service; especially in the private sector.
While most civil servants get home at least K3,000 per month, few workers in the private sector earn more than K2,000 per month. Despite Government enacting a law on minimum wage of about K750.00 for domestic workers and about K1,100.00 for shop assistants and general workers, most workers in such categories get less than K600 per month.
With high unemployment levels which also worsen high poverty levels engulfing every family in our society, most workers in  the private sector seem to have no say on improving their wages or salaries and their conditions of service.
Most workers are at the mercy of their employers and it appears most employers take advantage of high unemployment and high poverty levels in the country to exploit workers.
What is surprising is that despite most workers earning less than minimum wages, most employers in this country earn abnormal profits which are systematically hidden from normal accounting systems to prevent Zambia Revenue Authority and other government agencies from discovering how much abnormal profits such employers realize per month. Abnormal profits spring from low wages for most workers in most organisations.
Although it can be argued that such a situation is normal in a free market economy, what is worrying is the consequences of the same practices on improving the living standards of not only the workers concerned but also on their respective families and society at large.
Moreover, this is an area of concern, considering the high cost of living through the prices of basic essential commodities.
One would wonder how some workers would improve their academic and professional achievements if their wages and conditions of service are too restrictive to allow them save part of their incomes.
In any country, most workers start in low ranks in the hierarchy of each organisation. It is how much each worker earns per month in relation to the cost of living in a country that can allow them save part of their income to invest in high academic and professional achievements for them to be promoted to higher ranks.
This means that current junior workers, if well facilitated to improve on their respective academic and professional achievements through good salaries and good conditions of service can be future strategic managers in public and private sectors.
Such individual career progression effectively and efficiently contributes to the smooth and profitable performance and expansion of an organisation concerned; and ultimately to national economic growth of a country.
If most employers continue paying slave wages and offering poor work culture, low productivity might continue.
Such a situation will negatively affect  expansion of organisations, stall job creation, limite poverty alleviation making development a pipe dream.
Who knows, perhaps the current failure for Zambia to achieve more than 6 per cent of its planned national economic growth is a result of most workers not improving on their academic and professional achievements due to low wages and salaries.
It is against this bleak background that reports that some security guards get less than K650.00 per month despite working in different day and night shifts in a particular month attracts some concern on how inhumane some employers are towards their workers.
In some cases, there are also delays in paying the same low salaries to workers.
To make matters worse, most workers are on casual employment meaning when their contracts aren’t renewed, most of them will go back in the streets with little or capital to start a business.
Trade unions and government of the day should take issues relating to workers’ wages and monthly salaries seriously as such have short and long-term socio-economic effects both on individual workers and national development process as a whole.
Workers should persuade their employers to form trade unions.  Sector trade unions should initiate effective members’ recruitment drive in most organisations to ensure that all workers; except those in security wings belong to trade unions.
Parliament should enact relevant legislation to compel all employers to facilitate their respective workers to form or belong to a trade union of their choice.
To effectively achieve this, the law allowing multiple trade unions in the same sector should be reviewed to avoid conflict or infighting among related trade union leaders which lead to some trade union leaders being compromised against workers’ needs.
It is therefore important for all patriotic citizens, workers, employers, trade unions and successful governments to develop keen interest in workers’ wages or monthly salaries and conditions of service because they affect poverty alleviation strategies and national development in the country.