By Agatha Namirembe.
Trade unions remain a force to be reckoned with in Uganda and that they deliver benefits to their members, particularly those who work in the public sector. This calls for plans ofthe most dramatic shift in conditions for employees including improving working conditions and the general welfare of workers if they are to deliver effectively and efficiently.
As government is trying to build a consensus for an increased role for trades unions in the country there is need to promote healthy policy for workers by introducing “sector-wide collective bargaining policy” across the economy.
Being a very strong advocate of workers’ rights, I believe that fully rolling out collective bargaining coverage would mean that in the country of over 10 million employees they would have their pay set by negotiations between employers and unions.
“Sector-wide collective bargaining will set minimum and legally binding pay, terms and conditions for every employer and every worker in the sector”. ‘This shall significantly strengthen workers’ bargaining power as an essential prerequisite for employment.
“In practice, it means that rather than the employer having all the power to determine what your conditions and pay are at work, they will be legally obliged to enter into negotiations with your trade union. This is a giant step forward in rebalancing the unequal power relations that exist between a worker and an employer.”
Indeed, without collective rights in law, especially with regard to the right to strike, any collective bargaining can easily end up being merely collective begging.
With stronger collective rights, applied and enforced with the help of unions, both unions and workers’ rights would be immeasurably strengthened. The benefits of unionization and collective bargaining are therefore far more pronounced in the public sector. This underlines the government’s commitment to implementing its policies among its own employees.
Unionized public-sector workers are also far more likely to have secure working conditions than private-sector and non-unionized workers. All union members in the public sector shall have a written employment contract under the arrangement .
Despite improvements in contract coverage for non unionized workers over time, members still have greater job security.
Non-unionized workers do not enjoy these benefits to the same extent. But in the public sector the disadvantage of not being a union member is greater. So the incentive to participate is clear.
Unions inform workers of their rights and help them apply them. Labour unions have always helped more than just their members because employers apply the gains of union negotiated deals to all employees.
Labour unions have an integral role to play as a voice for social transformation in the labour sector.
It is the task of the trade unions with support of the labour centers to design training programs to help union leaders gain the necessary skills of running the union amidst the challenges in the ever changing world of work.
Union leaders should inspire the loyalty union members especially those who think that some of their representatives are being insufficiently radical in addressing the workers challenges■
