Fewer workers toil excessive hours
MBABANE – The country has seen a decline in the number of people working excessive hours.
This is contained in the Decent Country Work Programme for 2022 to 2025. The document states that the formation of the National Wages Council gave birth to improvement of salaries and working conditions in the labour market.
The Labour Wages Council is made up of trade unions and representatives of different sectors and employers. The council is responsible for discussing wages and working hours per industry.
The document highlights that Eswatini does not have a national minimum wage, and that the national authorities have prioritised the need for such.
In the meantime, the country has sectoral Regulation of Wages Orders for the various sectors of the economy, including agriculture, retail textile and apparel, manufacturing, and processing.
“There are 18 wages councils that meet on an annual basis to negotiate basic minimum terms and conditions of service for the economy’s various sectors. The outcome of the wages councils is a Regulation of Wages Order for each industry published in the Government Gazette by the minister for Labour and Social Security,” reads the document.
Improvements
Over the years, the document that was signed by TUCOSWA, FESWATU, Business Eswatini and Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini, highlights improvements that were brought by the council.
The document highlights that there had been a significant decline in the number of people working excessive hours over the years. Normal working hours should be 48 in a week.
In some industries, workers work extra hours without getting paid for it. The International Labour Organisation (ILO), in 2020, called industries to look into reducing working hours for workers in some industries.
This was in a joint meeting with the World Health Organisation (WHO), where health experts stated that people who worked excessive hours were likely to die of heart diseases before their 45th birthday.
The document stated that the rate of people working excessive hours declined from 43 to 31.9 per cent. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some employers introduced innovative methods of working. Workers no longer reported to the office daily but some worked from home. Companies introduced rotational schedule for workers.
In addition, the document highlighted that the council had been able to improve the minimum wages of the different sectors.
“The proportion of workers earning less than two thirds of the median monthly earnings declined from 43 to 25 per cent. Over the same period, the proportion of workers with excessive hours (more than 48 hours per week) declined from 43 to 31.9 per cent,” he said.
Employers also improved the hiring style of employees as the documentation improved over the years and more people were hired on fixed contracts.
The ratio in part-time employment fell from 20 to eight per cent. The percentage with written contracts improved from 58 to 67 per cent, and the precarious employment rate was reduced to 9.1 per cent from 14 per cent.
Wages
The Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) from the ILO requested Eswatini to pay special attention to the design or adjustment of sectoral minimum wage schemes to ensure that the wage rates fixed were free from gender bias and that skills considered to be ‘female’ were not undervalued.
The ministry, through the document lamented the limited budgetary allocation to the labour inspectorate. The ministry stated that that the limited budget hindered the improvement in the operations and efficiency of labour inspections.
Noteworthy, the government ratified the Labour Inspection Convention 1947 (No. 81).
Experts
In 2018 the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Ratified Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) recommended that the government take steps to adapt and strengthen the labour inspectorate.
The call was to improve the capacity of labour inspectors, including their ability to identify child labour cases in the informal economy that currently fall outside the inspectorate’s coverage.
However, labour inspection capacity remains limited, with the number of inspectors per 10 000 employed persons declining from 0.26 in to 0.17. “Limitations in the inspectorate’s capacity have profound implications for ensuring labour law compliance.”
For that reason, the ILO extended training support to the labour inspectorate in applying Strategic Compliance Planning methods to effect positive compliance outcomes despite limited resources.
Eswatini is now among a few member states of the ILO that is piloting the recently introduced tool on Strategic Compliance Planning which aims to assist member states in strengthening their labour inspections mandate.