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Government is in the process of revising the Employment Code Act, No.3 of 2019 in order to seal the existing loopholes that have been identified in the labour market.
The Minister of Labour and Social Security, Brenda Tambatamba, said the decision was also aimed at achieving the transformative agenda set out by government.
Tambatamba said this during a collaborative labour inspection held at Ruida Investment, a Mining company based in Jifumpa, Kasempa district of North Western Province.
The Minister was in Kasempa District conducting collaborative follow-up inspection and routine inspections with its statutory bodies to ensure that there was compliance of labour laws in the mining and construction sectors.
She disclosed that the Ministry was also developing a system to assess job quality at every place of work by ensuring that their was compliance with the law.
“We have to develop a quality management tool as government, employers and workers altogether with guidance from the Zambia Institute of Human Resource Management,” Tambatamba said.
She, however, cautioned that the government’s role of inspecting companies was to ensure that there was industrial harmony though companies ought to get worried if inspection were conducted many times as that was the sign that they were not compliant.
Tambatamba has since advised management at the Ruida Mine to benchmark companies that have managed to produce good results where management of human resource is concerned.
“I want to urge companies to recognise the partnership between employers and employees. The two parties need to work together for the progression of the business and for the enhancement of productivity at the place of work,” she said.
In response to the concerns raised, Managing Director Li Gang assured the Ministry that management of the company would look into the issues raised during the inspections as required by labour laws .
He disclosed that the company was focusing on health and sanitation of its employees by installing new structures of toilets.
On the issue of providing the Proper Protective Equipment (PPE), Gang explained that the company had a duty to provide a conducive environment for its workers hence it was an area that can not be compromised.
“With the PPE, we have a deliberate policy that guides that every after six months, each employee is given a new outfit and conduct sessions on the importance of safety and health of employees,” he said.
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Gang pledged that the company would continue complimenting government effort especially in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by empowering the local people so that their lives are improved.
“In 2021, therefore, we collectively came up with Jifumpa Mine Trust Fund (JMTF) to support the local community and as a mine, we pledged to allocate k500, 000 funding to JMTF on an annual basis as approved by the Board of Directors, ” he said.
Gang said so far with this initiative, Jifumpa mine had released an amount of K1 million to the community.
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