Labour strategic sector to drive productive—Mussa
Minister of Labour and Manpower Development Henry Mussa has said government designated the labour sector as a strategic and priority area to champion job creation and skills development.
He said governmen embarked on the initiative considering that a skilled labour force contributes to economic growth and improved living standards.
“The country’s leadership has elevated the Ministry of Labour to a strategic and priority sector to champion job creation through skills development for employment creation to effectively contribute to socio–economic development of the country,” said Mussa in Mangochi on Wednesday when he opened a three-day National Tripartite Social Dialogue with representatives from government, Malawi Congress of Trade Union (MCTU) and Employers Consultative Association of Malawi (Ecam).
Mussa said the development was an opportunity for social partners to translate the political will into reality and demonstrate to Malawians the centrality of labour and employment in the national development.
He said major players in the labour industry are government, employer and employee who are supposed to be meeting on a mutual understanding to discuss how to improve labour relations for a more productive nation.
“The bottom linr in all this is that government would like to see more productivity in the labour sector and particularly how the labour industry would contribute to the socio– economic growth of the country,” said MussA
Meanwhile, CTU president Chauluka Muwake threatened to publish all employers who were exploiting their employees for to improve working conditions.
“Naturally, trade unions are interested in productivity because it has an effect on the economy. We cannot talk of poverty reduction when there’s disproportionate wealth between an employer and employee,” he said.
Ecam president Emmanuel Banda said they have noted with pride that government has put measures to limit misuse of public resources following Cashgate, saying the stringent measures will bring confidence in public finance management.
He, however, appealed to government to consider investing in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are facing teething problems such as capitalisation and costing.
