BY HON. CHARLES BAKKABULINDI
Workers Member of Parliament
The industrial relations system in Uganda has some connotation with that of the British system who were our former colonial masters. The set up ad operation are exactly like that of the British and any other common wealth countries e.g Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and others.
According to the system, the government governs and regulates the employers and the employees through the labour dispute(Arbitration) and settlement Act 2006) It is this same law which establishes an industrial court presided over by a judge who has a status of that of industrial court. other laws that help the government to regulate the relationship are:
The employment Act No. 6 2006
The labour Unions Act No. 7,2006
The occupation safety and health Act 2007
The workers compensation Act 2006
The National Social security fund Act 1985
The public service Negotiating Consultative and dispute settlement machinery Act 2008
The pension’s Act 1968
The labour Unions(check off statute 2011)
The system encourages cordial relationship between employers and employees.
It allows collective bargaining between workers through their trade unions and employers to determine their terms and conditions of work amicably with the employers. Civil servants have also been allowed to form trade unions but these unions are hand -caped because the government is still dictating the terms of the civil servants.
The government is the custodian of all work relationship, it has a role to enforce the labour laws to inspect the industries and settle and arbitrate disputes.
The trade unions have tried to engage the employers but with little success due to lack of government will on many touchy issues due to lack of a statutory minimum wage and unfavorable policies e.g liberalization policies privatization fovouring investors at the expense of the workers, importation of labour and many others.
What we see in Uganda today is an industrial relations system which is prone to;
Low productivity
Corruption among the government administrators
Threats and strikes from workers due to unfair terms and conditions of work
Lack of morale on the part of the workers due to unfavorable terms and conditions of service, poor remuneration e.g health workers and teachers
Employers who have taken advantages of the weak and corrupt government tendencies
In order for us to have a strong and sound industries relation the following things must be done
Government must put in place a statutory minimum wage
Government must strengthen the Ministry responsible for labour both monetary and man power capacity. This will ensure that factories are regularly inspected and that there are enough labour officers in every district
The monster of corruption must be fought from all angles
Trade unions must double their effort to assist the workers from unfavourable conditions
The industrial court must be seen to do its work ie it must be well facilitated in order to offload the outstanding cases
It is only when these interventions are made that we can have a meaningful industrial relations system in Uganda.
ends
