Trade unions in Zambia differ over boycotting Workers’ Day

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Trade unions in Zambia on Friday differed on calls to boycott next month’s International Workers’ Day.
The country’s main opposition political party, the United Party for National Development (UPND), early this week called on workers to boycott the May 1 celebrations as a protest on government’s recent labor policies such as a two-year wage freeze on public workers.

Zambia“As UPND, we urge all workers to boycott this year’s Labor Day celebrations and instead deliver the message to government that change is needed,” the party said in a statement.
While the Judiciary and Allied Workers Union has said its members will boycott the celebrations, the Federation of Free Trade Unions has called on workers in the country not to boycott the event but instead turn out in large numbers.
Peter Mwale, the president of the Judiciary and Allied Workers Union said in a statement that boycotting the event will make the government aware that workers were not happy about the wage freeze that has continued to be in effect despite opposition from the trade unions.
“The call for a boycott does not matter whether it has been called for by the UPND but I think we the labor movement should have led such calls because we have suffered for a long time,” he said.
But the Federation of Free Trade Unions has condemned the calls to boycott the event, saying the opposition party should have consulted the labor movement before making the call.
“We would like to condemn the UPND for calling on our members to shun Labor Day celebrations without consulting us. In every institution, there are laid down procedures. The UPND leadership should have taken this into consideration before issuing such statements to our members,” Chingati Msiska, the union’s president said in the statement.
The government imposed a two-year wage freeze on public workers in 2014 and a two-year halt on recruitment of new staff in the public service. Last year, it decided to increase the retirement age from 55 to 65 years despite opposition from stakeholders.
The government has since revised the retirement age, with early retirement pegged at 55, normal retirement at 60 and late retirement at 65 years following pressure from stakeholders. Enditem

Source: Xinhua

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