By Lesnat Kenan

Lilongwe, May 18, Mana: Deputy Labour Commissioner for Ministry of Labour, Wafwile Musukwa has urged all private employment agencies to follow proper policies when doing recruitments

He made the remarks on Friday during the Mapping Exercise of Private Employment Agencies in Lilongwe conducted by Ministry of Labour in partnership with International Organization for Migration (IOM) in some districts of the country including Lilongwe and Blantyre

Musukwa said this would help the country to improve and attract labour market offers from both local and international.

"We have employment agencies in the country just like other countries which are internationally recognized. We have an international labour standards and is called employment agencies convention. The reason for coming up with this is because public employment agencies alone cannot manage to save the labour market so for the efficiency of job market we need both public and private employment agencies to work together," he added.

Musukwa pointed out that government has labour rules such as employment act that touches on issues of regulations and the labour export guide that focus on employment agencies that recruit for employment abroad.

He said employment agencies should ensure that there was fair and ethical recruitment when recruiting people abroad and to check human trafficking.

Musukwa appealed to all employers to comply with government on minimum wage saying that it was a crime to pay below minimum wage and people should complain to the Ministry of Labour if they are getting below minimum wage.

IOM Programmes Officer, Jeremiah Joshua said they partnered with government to make sure that migration or job recruitments are done formally and orderly.

"Over time, studies have shown that labour experts have started bringing slavery where employers take advantage to migrants. IOM is partnering with government and private employment agencies to ensure that migration is done properly and all employment recruitment process should be done well documented to avoid human trafficking and slavery," he added.

Director of Administration for Nswala Employment Bureau, Songazaudzu Sageni said that as an employment agency they are facing some challenges saying that some of them they do not know what exactly to do and he asked for the coordination of private employment agencies to come up with an association for agencies.

He added that the coming in of private employment agencies has helped a lot in provision of employment to people across the country by removing favoritism and bias and he appealed to all youths in the country to follow proper channels and policies whenever they are looking for an employment.

Owner of Hope Employment Bureau, Mphatso Chabwana expressed her gratitude to Ministry of Labour and IOM for working together with private employment agencies saying this makes work easier.

The aim of conducting this mapping exercise is to find out how many employment agencies are in the country and where are they operating.

Over 40 private employment agencies have been visited countrywide.