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What does Labour Day mean to us?
A Uganda Prisons Service officer leads colleagues during the Labour Day celebrations on May 1, 2023. PHOTO/PPU
What you need to know:
- The issue: Labour Day
- Our view: Yesterday’s celebrations – like those yet to come – should go a long way in addressing the problems facing workers across the country.
- We shouldn’t mark May Day just as a ritual; we need to make it count for the workers.
Uganda joined the rest of the world yesterday to mark the International Labour Day amid concerns over the country’s shaky employment sector.
The government – as reported in this paper yesterday - said seven of every 10 employed Ugandans are working without contracts and job security, with companies preferring the “illegal” arrangement to avoid tax and other statutory obligations.
The result is reduced costs of operations, but a huge disadvantage of Ugandans who deserve better employment terms.
In 1889, an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as a day in support of workers, in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot in Chicago towards the end of the 19th Century. The United States government made it law five years later.
May Day, also called Workers’ Day or International Labour Day, is meant to observe the historic struggles and gains made by workers and the labour movement every May 1.
Tacitly, countries are supposed to use the day to reflect on their missteps and seek to address them in order to improve the welfare of workers. This assessment is silent in many countries.
Ms Betty Amongi, the Gender and Labour minister said this practice is denting government revenue collections and at the same time not helping workers prepare for a better retirement because they don’t have any pension schemes.
The revelations came amid reports that the pace at which the government is taking to reform labour conditions in the country is too slow.
According to the assessment report titled ‘State Of Labour Rights in Uganda: Pursuing the Right to Livelihood and Dignity for all Workers’, the labour situation in the country in leaves so much to be desired despite ongoing efforts by the government to reform labour law as evidenced by the Employment Amendment Bill, 2022, Sexual Harassment Regulations, 2012 and the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights.
The analysis said as a result, this has resulted in the rampant casualization of labour, fissured employment relationships, poor and precarious working terms and conditions.
Workers in Uganda have for a long time called for policies that protect them against exploitation, such as the minimum wage law. Equally so, without contracts as mentioned above many employees are uncertain of job security and are always on the edge, unsure if they will be in employment in the long run. Some even go months without pay yet they continue to render their services.
Yesterday’s celebrations – like those yet to come – should go a long way in addressing the problems facing workers across the country. We shouldn’t mark May Day just as a ritual; we need to make it count for the workers.
