Labour minister outlines his plans for civilising workplaces
The Tanzania’s Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for Labour, Youth, Employment and Disabled, Mr Ridhiwani Kikwete, observes that most of the workplaces in the country are unfriendly to the labour force and investors.
THURSDAY September 5, 2024
By Patty Magubira
The Tranquility News Reporter, Tanzania
Newly appointed Tanzania’s Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for Labour, Youth, Employment and Disabled Ridhiwani Kikwete has unveiled his reformist roadmap as he seeks to mould a proactive and human-faced labour docket.
The roadmap apparently signals a new chapter in the country’s history of labour docket and investment landscape, heralding hope for a friendly working climate to both labour force and investors.
The existing public image of the docket is not impressive at all, regretted Mr Kikwete, observing that the labour force as well as investors considered labour officers as oppressive and tyrannous.
“Walk your job description’s rhetoric instead of assuming the role of a judge or a paymaster,” Mr Kikwete told senior regional labour officers in Arusha, Tanzania, recently.
The minister was in northern Tanzania to, among other things, officiate at a working session the Workers Compensation Fund (WCF) had organised for regional labour officers from across Tanzania Mainland.
Mr Kikwete said it was time for labour officers to prove the public wrong by writing reports which would assist employees with permanent disablements or their dependents in receiving their rightful compensations, insisting that the labour officers’ role was linking up their clients with the fund, not punishing them.
Some labour officers, he explained, used their revenue collecting role for creating corruption loopholes, often searching for inexistent wrongs against their clients and cashing in them.
“The truth is you are not performing justly,” retorted the minister, reminding tax collectors that the country’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan wished the government earned revenue it deserved without intimidating taxpayers.
Since labour officers never visited workplaces regularly unless they were invited, some of the places were operating without permits, particularly in the country’s commercial capital of Dar es Salaam, he noted.
As a result, some factories recruited human resource and focal lift operators from overseas, denying Tanzanians of employment and the national coffers of receipts.
Walk your job description’s rhetoric instead of assuming the role of a judge or a paymaster,” Ridhiwani Kikwete, Tanzania’s Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Labour, Youth, Employment and Disabled).
Mr Kikwete directed the Labour Commissioner to submit monthly reports on each region, divulging opportunities for employment, labour status, fake work permits, inaccessible workplaces and other challenges with which labour officers come across.
Mr Kikwete directed the labour officers to report to him stubborn investors, saying: “I am told some of them restrict you from entering their workplaces, no one is above the President who appointed me.”
WCF is a social security scheme for employees who suffer occupational injuries or contract occupational diseases arising out of and in the course of their employment and in case of death for their dependents.
According to the WCF Director General, Dr John Mduma, labour officers are an extension of services where the fund is not physically present, hence the need for the working session to sharpen their skills on various instruments of the fund, including laws, assessments of accidents and operations.
Mr Kikwete commended WCF for engaging participants from Tanzania Investment Centre in the working session, saying services of the fund would greatly contribute to creating good investment climate for both employees and employers.
President Samia, who raised compensation rate to Sh275,000 per month immediately after assuming the country’s highest office, is in the near future expected to assent to law a Bill amending the Workers Compensation Act (Cap. 263, and its revised edition of 2015).
Mr Abraham Siyovelwa, the WCF Head of Legal Services, said once assented to law, workers would continue receiving compensation even after recovering and returning to work.
Contributions of employers in the private sector would also be reduced to 0.5 per cent, down from 1 per cent, and so would interest rate imposed on belated submission of contributions from 10 per cent to 2 per cent per month.
Unlike in the past, Section 75 of the law will allow the WCF to refund employer who deposited more than the required amount of the contribution or use the exceeding money for paying arrears pending the employer’s consent.
An employee can now submit a notice directly to WCF instead of the employer doing so on his behalf following amendment of Section 39 of the Act.
Employers were required to submit reports every March 31, a requirement that has been seen as a repetition, as employers also submit reports each month.
Mr Kikwete said the amendment of the law aimed at creating a friendly environment for investments and motivating an investor to pay for arrears or negotiating an affordable installment mode for paying the same.
The law requires every public and private sector employer in Tanzania Mainland to register with and submit contributions to the fund without deducting employees’ salariesΩ
Recommended Posts
The Tranquility News Reporter/Sub Editor, Tanzania
Patty Magubira is an experienced environmental and business editor whose career started at the Tanzania's state-owned newspaper - The Daily News. He is a man of perfection. Aided by his extensive training as a community forestry expert before joining Tanzania School of Journalism. Magubira had successfully held various key posts in newsrooms, giving him an unmatched connections in media fraternity. Having worked as a bureau chief in Arusha and Mwanza, he managed to build a team work, boosting sales to the highest level ever. He was then promoted to a sub-editor after completing a training in Nairobi, Kenya. His incredible experience, critical thinking and exposure are critical to the quality of any media outlet.
