President Edgar Lungu has directed the Minister of labour to speed up the process of revising the minimum wage.
President Lungu says this will allow workers to have decent pay and provide food for their families.
He says in an effort to create more jobs government will continue promoting value addition.
President Lungu says government is also promoting the growth of cooperatives in various sectors of the economy.
He says some companies that have been funded by Citizen Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) are doing well in various rural parts of Zambia and have since created employment.
He said this during this year’s Labour Day cerebration.
Meanwhile president Lungu says government will continue consulting stakeholders on various issues affecting the nation.
He said for economic growth to be achieved, there is need for strong ties among stakeholders.
He said the labour movement will be consulted even on the National Health Insurance bill.
And speaking at the same function, Minister of Labour Joyce Simukoko challenged Unions to broaden the parameters of their negotiations.
Ms. Simukoko said unions should not only be happy when there is a salary increment but also push for their workers to have access to mortgage.
Speaking earlier, Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) President Chishimba Nkole said his union will continue fighting for better conditions of service for workers.
He said ZCTU wants the economy to be owned by Zambians.
And Vice president Inonge Wina says government is working towards enhancing partnerships in the labour market by championing dialogue among stakeholders as a way to creating sustainable jobs.
Mrs. Wina says government is creating an enabling environment to strengthen the synergies that allow for the different economic sectors to progress and be able to create jobs.
The vice president was speaking in Kitwe today during the Labour Day celebrations under the theme,” building partnerships for sustainable national development through decent job creation and social justice”
Mrs. Wina stated that among the interventions government is doing in line with this year’s theme is the recent commissioned Global Industries plant and refinery by President Edgar Lungu in Ndola last month.
“As a result of the commissioning of the plant more jobs have been created by both the plant and the local farmers who are now producing more soya beans which the plant requires for its production,” she said.
The vice president said government has taken cognizance that the working population worldwide including Zambia is going through challenges that require concerted efforts by stakeholders to address and government is making efforts to alleviating these challenges.
She implored all employers in private and public companies to ensure they offer employees humane working conditions and fair wages and also to give women and men equal opportunities.
“Government is alive to the fact Zambia‘s development agenda cannot be realized if adequate investment is not made in the youth that constitute the majority of the country population, this is why government has come up with youth empowerment programmes in the country.
She added that government also intends to enhance decent job opportunities through promotion of industrialization whose strategies will embark on addressing job creation and youth unemployment in the country.
She said further government will continue to pursue the implementation of the private sector development initiatives that promote and facilitate development of a competitive private sector that will be able to create sustainable and decent jobs.
And Zambia Free Trade Union Trustee nelson Mwale has urged political parties to sober up and stop insulting each other because war of words has never advanced human dignity has this only brings about destruction.
Mr Mwale said politicians must stop insulting each other but respect one another and focus on national development.
“The Federation of free Trade Union of Zambia is worried with the high degree of social media abuse in the country which he said is being used to disrespect leadership.
On the health insurance, Mr Mwale said the union has thanked president Lungu for signing into law the national health insurance bill as it will ensure all Zambians have equitable access to quality health care.
Minister of Defence Davies Chama has appealed to Civil Servants to desist from over borrowing and engage in farming activities to boost their income.
Mr. Davies Chama observes that most civil servants were complaining of high cost of living because they have over borrowed from private lending institutions.
Mr. Chama says civil servants should strive to ensure that they are also involved in farming as opposed to obtaining loans from private lending institutions.
He said most of civil servants were over borrowing from lending institution when they do not have capacity to pay back a situation he described as sad.
The minister was speaking during the Labour Day celebrations held at the president’s park in luwingu district in Northern Province.
The Labour Day was celebrated under theme building partnership for sustainable national development through decent job creation and social justice.
Meanwhile Mr. Chama appealed to the government workers to refrain from partisan politics and concentrate on their core of duty.
He said government is committed to dialogue with political parties in the country in order to continue fostering development and attract investors.
Mr Chama said the government is aware the challenges civil servants were going through especially in rural areas saying that government is slowly addressing some of the problems.
Meanwhile Zambia Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) representative Mr. Happy Phiri said the union is concerned with lack of political dialogue among the political players in the country.
If that’s your ambition, then stop stealing left right centre.
Sounds like borrowed words from Comrade Mmembe, about workers.
unfortunately too many taxes and that wont happen again in Zambia.
HH needs to consult the South Africans on that and Kambwili has to perform his stand up comedy routine, that’s their idea of leadership.
Shame on you who do not support ECL. Working against govertment will not develop the country, you jealous i.di.ots!
HIS EXPERIENCE THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA. COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES HAS SPOKEN.
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Your word should not end at the call for middle class pay check improvement. Yes! The Zambian contractors in the industries across the land are the most culprit. There is too much casualisation in the land. Folks in this job society’s bracket suffer a great deal and labour commissioners across the land are mute and blind. Kindly devise a mechanism wrt policy where every industry incorporates vicious labor officials to curtail worker abuses. Enhance inspections and compliance in workplaces. Now that’s what a healthy workforce yearns.
LIBYA’S LAP GreenN has written to Zambia’s lenders and other international institutions highlighting serious concerns of the defaulted debt which the government has failed to pay in compensation following repossession of Zamtel’s shares.
LAP GreenN had last week said it would use every possible avenue to collect the over $220 million debt that arose from the Zambian High Court Consent Compensation Order. This followed the government’s nationalisation in January 2012 of LAP GreenN’s stake in Zamtel pursuant to Zambia’s Land Acquisition Act.
However, the government has defaulted despite agreeing to payment in instalments.
In raising concerns over the defaulted, LAP GreenN has now written to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, African Development Bank, Development…
However, the government has defaulted despite agreeing to payment in instalments.
In raising concerns over the defaulted, LAP GreenN has now written to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, African Development Bank, Development Bank of Southern Africa, European Investment Bank, Fitch Rating Agency, Moody’s Investors Services, S & P Global Ratings, Deutsche Bank AG, Barclays Bank Plc, finance minister Margaret Mwanakatwe, Attorney General Likando Kalaluka and Solicitor General Abraham Mwansa.
How do you hope to achieve that when all you are doing is stealing and over borrowing as well as corruptly awarding contracts to your fellow corrupt and thieving masquerades?
Doctors in rural Rwanda are now able to order blood and medical supplies by text message and then have them delivered by a drone…in Zambia they are still talking about having ICT and electricity in Indian clinic posts!!
Wasted years indeed!!
But your Chinese investors can’t pay decently as they are the only ones you are favoring. Even on this same holiday they were still abusing workers while you gathered in Lusaka with carders.
But your Chinese investors can’t pay decently as they are the only ones you are favoring. Even on this same holiday they were still abusing workers while you gathered in Lusaka with carders.
You took the words out my mouth
What a drunkard!!! Decent pay? when you are taxing the already lowly paid workers like no bodies business.
Those young pilots will never grow old? So many years since we heard of them.
Foreigners above are the one’s quick to offer insults . Furck knows why they migrated.
Yesterday the lazy dingbat was talking about how he is saddened by deforestation yet its his crooks cutting down trees for the Chines…on Sunday he was encouraging “Christians” to join politics.. what stupidity …he thinks Zambia is only made of one “religion”. When they criticise him he will throw them in jail without charging them.
Yes! Your asz needs pay tax. It’s a obligation you f00l.
What we have in State House merely a ceremonial President who is happy to attend everything ….this man does not delegate; he has been out and about since last week. He does not prioritise where to go..I mean I wonder why lazy Edgar even chose to stand as Head of State…Zambia needs serious men to take it forward not a gagster in a suit!!
These are wasted years!!
To top in up this laaaazzzzy heap of dung will be again going to Angola for two days…twice in a space of two weeks!!
*To top it up…
What does your monkey asz know about the duty, tasks, schedule and program of a sitting president you lazy immigrant? Yada yada with your sick puppy mouth.
Just mind your fetish president, double h.
@Thorn in the!”£$$% – If you have lived abroad I doubt you would call an immigrant lazy…I know laziness when I see it like flying about burning Jet A1 fuel to Chinsali to plant trees in May ..really laughable…what is he going to do for 2 days in Angola? Dance on the tarmac and sign MOUs.
@3.4 Jay Jay, I don’t regard you highly as a tribalist, but all the same surely you cannot be that illiterate? The President of Angola is COMING TO ZAMBIA on a two day state visit and NOT the other way around.
For God’s sake is that what h.h has reduced you to, a cheap tribal hater!!!
Sorry I dont understand what tribalism is I grew up in a different era….i meet Zambians I dont even bother about knowing their surnames, thats the era I was brought up in. I dont know why you allign me to silly opposition politicians.
Revising the minimum wage is not solution as long as Zambian workers still remained heavily taxed. Today Zambian workers remains highly taxed people in Africa. How many taxes are Zambian workers subjected under P.F. ? Changing or improving the minimum wage will not solve the current high levels of poverty in house holds. Zambians are heavily burdened with taxes today than they were before.
The greatest inconsequential thieving and incompetent “president” ever in the history of the Republic. Zambia’s Wasted years!
How can wages be improved when the entire economy is in dire straits. Improve the economy first and wages will also improve on their own without having to resort to retrenchments as will be the case if the wage increment is forced apon companies who are already struggling just to keep afloat.
Domestic debt is a major killer of Zambian-owned businesses. The Government of Zambia owes local business houses huge amounts of money in unpaid bills. Some of the bills have remained unpaid for more than a year. Where the Government makes an effort to dismantle the bills (in installments), the amounts are insignificant. Meanwhile the local entrepreneur is suffocated, can’t pay workers on time. Thinking of increasing workers’ wages is next to impossible. The business people can’t borrow from Banks because interest rates (at more or less 25-45%) are beyond their capacity to pay back.
On other side of things, the Chinese businessman has his Government fully backing him through Bank of China, where loans are as good as interest-free. 20% of contracts to be given to Zambians can’t…
Mr. President ECL, Zambia is one of the top countries in Africa that pays its workers well. So you are fine in that department. Be careful that you don’t raise salaries as an election gimmick because that can come back to bite you. Before this minimum wage is increased do a thorough research. You know what a higher minimum wage can do to an economy that is consumption oriented. So stop playing roulette with peoples lives. There is high unemployment in Zambia right now, so what you may need are not high salaries but getting more people in employment. This improves distribution. INCREASE JOBS!
4.1 Jay Jay, that’s nice to hear. But you give yourself away when it matters most. I have never heard you comment whenever h.h fu.cks up you are dead silent. The other day after a church function, yes an important church function and therefore wrong occasion, h.h claimed that Zambian government used chemical weapons on its opponents and citizens. And you went silent, only to resurface today indirectly trying to feed us the usual crap that h.h would make a better alternative to the current leadership. Your colleague Spaka lilo at least disapproved of the chemical crap, while you were silent. What does that make you?
I keep telling you that if the current leadership has failed, unfortunately your h.h is NOT the good option that you seek.
However, taken note that you are not a tribalist,…
When Hakainde messes up its his party that suffers …why should that concern me? I am more concerned about Zambia and its economy. …my party is the people of Zambia!!
You are a total moran spreading lies !! What is wrong with you !!!!!!!!!!!! Go back to the mental institution you escaped from !!
However, taken note that you are not a tribalist, but I will hold you to your word and observe your actions.
Professor Hansungule will not admit to tribalism either, but his writings and lack of reasoning or independent thinking, and his recent debacle at university of pretoria say it all, without him ever mentioning a single Zambian name or tribe!!
Let us majority Zambians get rid of this minority peddled obnoxious crap of tribe pleazee!!!!
SOMEONE TAKE THIS PERSON TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION LAY CHARGE OF GENOCIDE TALK AGAINST HIM, THEN IMPRISIN HIM AND THROW AWAY THE KEYS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For those who missed the news or do not read, the “UN dismisses UPND claims” according to a daily briefing by UN deputy spokesperson for the S.G. posted on the UN Website “UN WEB TV” which states that recent allegations against UN Resident Coordinator Janet Rogan had no basis. Salient points quote:
1. On the allegation that Ms Rogan has held back on the conflict structure vulnerability report, the UN says that document is a report of the Electoral Commission of Zambia and thus the Resident Coordinator is “not in a position to withhold it”.
2. On the allegation that the UNDP contract consultants altered the voters roll, the UN has refuted that, correcting that “in fact the consultants in question were hired by ECZ and not by UNDP”.
Surely h.h has gone bonks, to even think of…
…….Surely h.h has gone bonks, to even think of making false or unverified allegations against an international organisation and an innocent lady doing her best to do her job in Zambia for Zambians. Shame on h.h, he is certainly not an option for President of Zambia!
The chap h.h does not have any sense of respect at all for people even international leaders. Now he wants the President of South Africa to come and investigate chemical weapons in Zambia!!!
Lungu giving workers decent wages, it will never happen.
Then return the money you and your colleagues have stolen from the Zambian people LOL
We live in Chibolya ,we defecate into pit latrines and earn slave wages from road side shacks. Where’s the decent wages Bwana Lungu?
HH is stealing? After swindling Zambia through the privatization scheme he went on to buy land in Namwala beyond what is required for a single person using his tribal chiefs whom he obviously has been giving kickbacks. Is that what you mean by stealing? “Corruption,” “Stealing,” code words for a non-Tonga! “Only a Tonga can be president and be trusted.”
Tribal gathering posing as a political party with a one man show tribalist at the helm of that tribal grouping with delusional supporters behind him from the grouping! Opposing even the best idea because it is not a Tonga who has said it!
I wish we had patriots from HH’s tribal grouping like this man! We have none! Savimbi killed people he wanted desperately to rule and HH condemns his own country he desperately wants to rule! Childish!
Congratulations young pilots and thank you Mr. President for recognising the youth. THis will encourage many to work hard and not to steal like HH or to be a Three Mansion like him!
“I need workers to have decent pay”-President Lungu
The hollow headline itself speaks volumes about the lack of vision Lungu himself admitted to. The idea that he can now just decree a higher minimum wage in a mickey-mouse economy like Zambia’s, and suddenly workers will be well paid and put food on the table is like the beginning of a very stup!d joke on vulnerable citizens.
Its the same as planting trees in April…who is going to water them? this reflects his actions without robust policies. Visit the place where they were picking up rubbish …I can bet you the place is filled up with rubbish today as they are no systems in place!!
@Mumbi Pghi; I agree with you;
Comment:Sharon allow your brains to coordinate well with your mouth otherwise you are a divider.
@ Danger kumazulo
You do not know that sharon is a transgender hooker which also use name victor?
On the other hand, she/he is well experienced in using mouth to 5uck rodents d!ck and tongue to l!ck alpha rodent arse
@9.1 Jay Jay, hehehe lelo lelo!! Wonders shall never end, who will buy that? Laughable indeed!!
Like I say to you dingbats…there is only black and white in your vision..its either one is a prey or predator, its either one is PF or UPND…
Yes your excellency give us ma K500 increment, not tuma K200
@Nubian Princes: You must be a demonically possessed person. How does HH and Kambwili come in the President Lungu’s speech. The President was advising we Zambians how we should behave in the society and as politicians. He did not mention a name of any person. You really need Salvation. You see when you insult people who have no case against you, you just shame yourself and your own family.
That blogger you refer to is the same caliber as Sharon/Victor ..all post irrelevant posts. To top it up she thinks she is posting thought provoking proverbs but all they are; are daft oxymoron statements.
If investors in the mines continue paying peanuts to zambians then copper is valueless to us zambians……and it follows that we have bad leaders in government…….
a nation of young generation who are full of insults…… very tribal…… very uneducated……. A leader who is a liar………….. an evil man………. no fear of GOD in his life…………………… worshiped by cadres…………….. A Woe to Max Choongo who can compare Jesus with a mortal being………. ati ka big brother…………. let him wear a Dorcas uniform and hold a Jameson brand……………………. There is uniform for AMO?……………. we shall pray that evil men are dealt as Pharoah or Nebuchardinazar of Bayblon
You raise the wages then the cost of living goes up as well. If you want a desent salary you have to work harder Zambians are very lazy compared to other SADAC countries. Employers will just lay staff off and replace with machines. Gov’t better check their research before they up the wages by large amounts.
Good vision Mr. President! DOn’t worry about those with a tribal agenda!
I am happy that HaGayGay and HaSp are unifiers! Unifiers of a demonic party!