Firms Push for Labour Laws Review

Firms Push for Labour Laws Review

Employers’ challenges in doing business could be reduced with effective lobbying and advocacy systems that addresses the needs of businesses related to labour laws says the ECAM member organisations CEOs.

A selection of Malawi’s business leaders expressed their views and concerns during a visiting tour by ECAM representatives. ECAM visited a host of companies – like Umodzi Park Holdings, Limbe Leaf Tobacco, Lilongwe Handling Company, Central Region Water Board Ethanol Company Limited among others- and spoke face-to-faces with the CEO’s of those companies.

Speaking during One-On-One CEO meetings, one of the CEOs Nixon Lita, Chief Executive Officer for TAMA Farmers Trust, said some provisions of labour and employment laws need to be reviewed to reflect current business environment and demands of the international market.

He said companies face challenges in exporting products because they are associated with Forced labour and Child Labour and that the management of industrial relations at the enterprise level becomes difficult when strikes are not adequately regulated.

CEOs have requested ECAM to advocate and lobby on some of the major issues including: Workers Compensation Act where many companies have been affected by unrealistic and prohibitive claims that are now order of the day; Genders issue in the workplace that has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic; Requirement of employers to pay workers that are on strike; Review of the Employment Act in respect to Tenancy Labour; Pension in terms of accessibility and what an employee gets when they retire.

In his statement, ECAM Executive Director George Khaki said CEOs visits had come in a good time when ECAM was compiling its business Agenda and hence it was crucial for ECAM to learn on what to prioritise in its advocacy and lobbying activities as well as to make ECAM relevant.

“We will tackle all the mentioned issues to ensure that both employers and employees are conversant with relevant laws and we will continue to push for review of laws that affects labour and employment to have productive and decent workplaces,” said Khaki.

The CEOs one on one visits was conducted with the financial support from Dutch Employers’ Cooperation Program-DECP with the aim of getting to know members’ expectations of ECAM and to get CEOs to be familiar with its mandate and to get them involved in ECAM’s activities.