In a bid to promote compliance with labour laws among SMEs, the Ministry of Labour, with technical and financial support from the EU funded Zantchito Skills for Jobs Programme, continues to conduct SME targeted labour and OSH inspections.
The recent labour inspection exercise, conducted in the southern region from the 24th to the 28th of February, revealed several labour and Occupation Safety and Health (OSH) deficits among SMEs. This SME targeted labour inspection came as one of the series of SME targeted labour inspections that are being conducted through the support of the Zantchito Skills for Jobs Programme. The inspections are earmarked to, among other deliverables promote the attainment of decent work in the SMEs through improved compliance to labour laws, information dissemination and general awareness on labour laws amongst the SMEs
A total of 360 workplaces were inspected in Zomba, Phalombe, Machinga, Mangochi, Neno, Mwanza, Balaka, Ntcheu, Nsanje, Chikwawa, Mulanje, Chiradzulu, Thyolo, and Blantyre districts. The inspected workplaces fell in the categories of manufacturing, quarry and mining, building and construction, agriculture and forestry, commerce and Distribution, and social services. So far, the Ministry of Labour, working together with the Zantchito project, has managed to achieve a total of 1800 labour inspections conducted across the country.
According to the inspection report, notable decent work deficits observed during the inspection included among others, non-reporting of occupational injuries, non-compliance on pension contributions, exposure to occupational safety and health risks without any form of protection, general lack of awareness on labour laws and decent work provision, non-availability of safety and health committees, underpayment of wages, non-payment of overtime and underpayment of overtime, noncompliance to provision of annual, maternity, and sick leave and underpayments of terminal benefits.
A number of OSH-related shortcomings, such as lack of personal protective clothing and equipment, exposure to various health hazards, lack of OSH awareness, and exposure to unguarded dangerous moving parts of machinery, were also identified during the labour inspections.
Johanes Mandowa, the OSH expert under the Zantchito Skills for Jobs Programme, attributed these challenges to “general lack of awareness on the tenets of decent Jobs in SMEs, negligence on the part of employers to provide their employees with decent work conditions, and limited capacity of the labour inspectorate to enforce and induce compliance in the SMEs among others owing to lack of adequate human and operational resources”
Employees work without any form of personal protective clothing and equipment.
The report recommends the need for continued technical and financial support to the Ministry of Labour to ensure increased labour inspections in the SMEs. The Zantchito Skills for Jobs Programme will continue to provide support to the Ministry of Labour in the execution of follow-up labour inspections in SMES and in raising OSH and Labour Laws awareness in SMEs in order to achieve incremental improvement in compliance with labour laws that address decent work deficits in the SMEs. This will be crucial in aiding the country’s endeavour to attain decent jobs in line with international labour standards and sustainable economic development milestones as espoused in the Malawi 2063 Vision.
The inspection exercise involved the participation of a total of 51 labour and OSH officers drawn from all the southern region districts. Combining OSH officers and labour officers was critical in the quest to advance the concept of integrated labour inspections for optimum utilization of resources.
