Parliamentary Committee on International Relations inspects Ministry of Labour’s progress report

Lilongwe, November 12, Mana: Parliamentary Committee on International Relations has expressed that it is not satisfied with the inspection done by the Ministry of Labour in various work places.

Speaking on Tuesday at Parliament after meeting officials from the Ministry of Labour, Chairperson for the committee, Patrick Bandawe, said the committee was not impressed with how the ministry is handling inspections of some work places.

“As a committee, as members of parliament we have observed that they are not doing enough when it comes to inspection, as a result, a lot of working places do not have the standards that they deserve”

The Committee also raised concerns on the recent protests Israel job seekers had on the government. Bandawe added that some members of the committee did not like how the issue was handled to the point where some of the youth protesting were arrested.

In her remarks, Principal Secretary for Ministry of Labour, Chikondano Mussa said that they were invited by the committee to give them progress on what the ministry is doing on Convention 111, Convention 100 and others, to look into the issues of discrimination in work places, equal remuneration and forced labour.

“So, we have given parliament the progress report on what we have made, these are ratified conventions by the country and therefore we have regulations to facilitate adherence to the same. We have shared with parliament many issues that the ministry is doing. We have shared with parliament that we carry out regular inspections to various work places to ensure that people are complying in terms of discrimination, that there’s no discrimination and people should not be recruited based on sex, religion and ethnicity. This is what we check when we go out, we want to go into a company or industry and find out if there is equal opportunity,” Mussa explained.

She added that they have also shown parliament that through the same inspections they are able to ensure that companies and all work places both private and public are complying to issues of health and safety at work.

Mussa also addressed the concerns raised by the youth who protested against the government's involvement in job placements in Israel. The protesters urged the Ministry of Labour to halt its recruitment efforts and allow private recruiters to handle the process instead. Mussa stated that the reasons for this demand have been acknowledged and that the Ministry of Information is yet to release an official government statement on this.

She explained that the Ministry of Labour is responsible for overseeing and implementing labor export programs, as per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which states that the recruitment of workers for farms in Israel is managed by the Malawian government under the Ministry of Labour. However, recent protests by job seekers have called for the Ministry of Labour to stop conducting the recruitment and instead allow private recruiters to take over the process. This raises questions about who has the authority to decide that the recruitment should shift from the government to private recruiters. The current program is government-to-government, with Israel specifically requesting that the Malawian government handle recruitment. Therefore, any decision to change to private recruiters would need to be agreed upon by Israel.