Engaging employers in search for parity

By Steven Tendo, Journalist

 

Too many times, debate rages over abused rights of workers in some organization, usually in the media. The battle lines are usually drawn between the adversaries but the battles usually leave only the workers bruised, with battered rights.

Kinyara Sugar Works is one of those organizations beset by problems seemingly beyond those of other like companies. The tinderbox beneath the sugar producer is left open and dangerously close to embers, leaving it in constant danger of a bust up.

If it is not casual labourers, it is out growers angry about money paid to them. 

In August 2010, casual labourers were reported to have brought KSW to a halt over alleged nonpayment. The angry mob razed the factory canteen and vandalized a Tata lorry.

Also among valuable items that were destroyed were a computer, a tent and documents belonging to Post Bank in the KSW enclosure.

A strike by out growers led to the burning of about 10 acres of cane. Apart from the obvious loss to the investors at the sugar plant, the whole country experienced a shortage of sugar supply for a long time.

Managers at Kinyara believe that trade unions, far from being a stabilising agent, cause conflict. The fights between the different unions that are vying for the workers at the factory are believed to be disrupting cohesion and therefore disorganizing labour.

 

Mrs. Rosemary Ssenabulya is the Executive Director at the Federation of Uganda Employers (FUE). She was involved in the push to have the four labour laws in 2006. She believes Uganda has enough laws; only that implementation is poor.

“We have the necessary legislation and laws. Our biggest challenge is in enforcement. The knowledge and awareness of these laws as by workers and employers is also very poor,” she argues.  “When we are looking at employers, we have the tendency of looking at the big employers and we forget that the majority of employers, almost 70%, are the small ones.”

According to the Executive Director, many employers are actually ignorant of the law. They trample on the rights of workers, not because they are malicious but because they do not have the requisite information. It is the mandate of the FUE, therefore to educate such employers to uphold the rights of employees.

“The Federation’s role is education. Within our limits, we try as much as possible to educate our members,” she stresses.

Mrs. Ssenabulya as the head of the Federation for over ten years, it has come with a wealth of experience. Through that period, she has learnt about self-reliance. The government, busy with so many concerns, has not always been a reliable partner where issues like work place conditions are concerned.

“When we are organizing sensitization workshops, we do not ask for facilitation from government because we do not expect it anyway. But they always send an officer from the labour department. We know our ministry is the least funded,” she says.

According to Mrs. Ssenabulya, when the Federation notices that its members are not complying with the rules of the association, the best action is to advise them on the way they should behave. In most cases, when Federation officers visit members, they request to see their documents pertaining to workers’ rights. Where they are at variance with the national laws, the employers are advised to change.

“For instance, the law says maternity leave must be 60 working days and if we find an employer who only gives 30 days, we advise accordingly,” she explains.

In an economy where foreign direct investment is keenly needed, it is perhaps not surprising that foreign investors many times find themselves on the negative side of the law. Yet the government has to walk a thin line where the rights of workers and the comfort of the investors are concerned.

“In cases where there is a foreign investor coming in, we try to engage them to get them understand our mode of conduct,” the FUE Director says further. “We have tried to educate new investors and also provided material advice. Of course some will not come to us for this.”

The Federation works with the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) to engage foreign investors. “We are trying to get our literature included in the package that the UIA hands to these investors when they come to the country,” Mrs. Ssenabulya says speaking of the difficulty in the affair.

“Much as we put our literature in the package, it is up to the investor to agree or not to. We cannot force them. Usually, when they have just come, they take a long period to join the FUE because it is assumed they are still trying to acclimatize.”

Labour is a major factor of production and weakening it the way the government has done with it sends the wrong message, according to Mrs. Ssenabulya. With a skeleton crew to deal with labour, the rights of the worker are always in danger of being abused.

The government needs to address unemployment if workers’ rights are to be realized. Pushing for very good working conditions for only a few employees with a very big number of poorly paid is not a healthy situation. “We are sitting on a time bomb,” Mrs. Ssenabulya warns.

Human rights bodies need to focus their energies on advocating for the creation of jobs, especially in agriculture. Another area that needs urgent treatment is the training of labour. According to the experienced executive, employers not need the kind of university graduates that are coming out. “We need more of technical people. Otherwise, we shall continue having these disparities in pay and working conditions. The rights of the workers cannot be improved without major changes in the way we do business as employers.