[stop-imf] Tanzania: Trade Unions Deplore Condition of Workers, Privatisation

[Robert Weissman]

Trade Unions Deplore Condition of Workers

http://allafrica.com/stories/200105010095.html

Panafrican News Agency (Dakar)
May 1, 2001 
Posted to the web May 1, 2001
Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Tanzania's trade union leaders Tuesday criticised the country's on-going
privatisation process for causing economic hardships to the working
population.

They said in a May Day message that the process has ruined the welfare of
ordinary workers, who have been subjected to terrible working conditions
such as long hours, compulsory night shifts, job insecurity, poor
remuneration, forced overtime work and denial of access to trade unions.
"There is no job security anymore as employers can hire and fire
indiscriminately," a veteran trade unionist bemoaned.

Tanzania embarked on the road to privatising its 400 odd state-owned
enterprises soon after unveiling its investment policy in 1990.

The IMF and World Bank-induced policy, which seeks to propel the East
African country to market-driven economy, has come under attack for the
massive retrenchments of workers both in the public and private sector.
Since 1992, the size of the country's civil service work force has been
trimmed from 355,000 workers in 1992 to 170,000 workers todate.

Under the programme, employment in the civil service has been slashed to
50,000 or 17 per cent of the total, according to the chairman of the Civil
Service Reform Programme, Deogratias Ntukamazina.

Tanzanian trade union leaders are irked by the lack of transparency in the
privatisation exercise, which they say does not involve all the
stakeholders, especially the workers through their trade unions.

"The 'secretive' nature of the implementation of the process has led to
the denial of workers' fundamental rights of freedom of association and
collective bargaining," Ngulla said, adding "there must be dialogue
between government, employers and employees if the process is to attain
its desired goals."

Privatisation and liberalisation of the economy, the trade unionists said,
have led to the relaxation of the enforcement of the country's labour laws
to create a better climate for foreign investors.

The relaxation of labour regulations has given the new employers a
loophole to undermine the rights of workers, the TUCTA chairperson
Margareth Sitta said.

"There are companies that are ignoring existing laws when considering
wages, working hours, health and safety regulations at places of work".
According to the International Labour Organisation, Tanzanian workers are
among the most poorly paid employees in the world despite being taxed
heavily.

The monthly minimum wage for the majority Tanzanian workers in the lower
cadre has remained a miserable 30,000 shillings for public servants and
17,500 for those in the private sector (1 US dollar = 889Tsh).

The deterioration of the working conditions of the majority Tanzanian
workers is attributed to lack of a vibrant trade union movement in the
country, particularly after the adoption of the market-oriented IMF and
World Bank policies.

"Economic reforms and the need to adapt to a new working environment has
weakened the spirit of trade unionism," concedes former secretary general
of the defunct Tanzania Federation of Trade Union, Bruno Mpangala.