Uganda must strengthen labour competitiveness and productivity

Industrial harmony and protection of the workers’ rights by employers are not being observed.

Uganda has been unfairly singled out as less competitive in terms of labour productivity compared with some of its neighbours, especially Kenya. The problem with the study which was done by UMA/World Bank is that it limited itself to the agricultural and plantation sector which, obviously puts Kenya at the front.

The study nevertheless found out that in terms of formal education, Uganda had the comparative edge. It’s much easier to skill the formal group than the reverse. Uganda is scoring if at all there is reverse deliberate policy on skilling the graduates under the labour sector.

Labour administration and competitiveness involves strengthening administrative systems, structures and personnel to promote labour standards, which results into increased productivity. Such a system guarantees delivery of decent work.

The outcome is industrial peace and harmony, sustainable productivity, decent work conditions, safety at the workplace and competitiveness of the enterprises. Business efficiency and competitive enterprises are vital for increasing employment opportunities and national development.

Labour standards are elaborated in the national Constitution and the new labour legislation, including, the Employment Act No.6 of 2006, the Labour Unions Act No. 7 of 2006, the Labour Disputes Arbitration and Settlement Act No. 8, the Workers Compensation Act, 2000, the National Social Security Act Cap 220 and the Occupational Safety and Health Act No. 9 of 2006 and regulations thereto.

At the regional level, the Protocol on Free Movement of Labour was launched in July 2010. The protocol requires East African member states to harmonise their laws and to put in place structures to provide information, its dissemination and to facilitate the free movement of labour in the member states. Uganda must ensure that this opportunity does not go through its fingers.

There is need to strategically position all sectors to penetrate the regional markets.
Labour productivity and competitiveness will need to match the infrastructural set up over the long period of investment.

For a take, the government has been investing huge amounts of money in the universal primary and secondary education and tertiary education. There is, therefore, matched need to ensure the job is finished by establishing a national productivity centre or labour centres of excellence. There should be a deliberate effort to skill, train and re-orient the critical human resource necessary for delivering the desired industrial growth.

The recent international economic crisis has brought a new dimension to the situation in terms of increasing unemployment and underemployment, termination of services and loss of jobs and industrial disharmony, creating new needs, concerns, demands and challenges.

Industrial harmony and protection of the workers’ rights by employers are not being observed. The employers are placing more importance to profitability without due consideration for motivation for increased productivity.

There is further a challenge of new groups of vulnerable workers, characterised by temporary employment/job insecurity, child labour violations, lack of social security and a growing informal sector. At the same time, there are new occupational hazards, such as stress and new risks, new epidemics in the workplace, the HIV/Aid, Ebola, etc.
Labour productivity and competiveness is a result of combined factors that include adaptability to IT usage, HIV/Aids policies at workplace, gender equality at workplace and the overall government regulatory supportive framework. These include training and retraining to acquire new skills. At the same time, employees need to keep abreast of new developments in the world of work and be prepared to face new challenges.

Under the Employment Act, the Labour Commissioner is required to publish an annual national report on inspection services covering the following: developments with regard to relevant laws and regulations, staff under the jurisdiction of the commissioner, statistics of workplaces liable to inspection and the number of workers employed in the workplace, findings in the course of inspection, statistics of industrial accidents and occupational diseases, statistics of people with disabilities in work places and aid being provided by the employer and statistics of proceedings brought before the Industrial Court and of their disposal.

This report has the potential to influence policy on labour, employment, manpower planning, monitoring of development programmes and legislation review.

In order to spur the economy, the human resource component is quintessential as a factor of production. This has been reflected under the National Development Plan. President Museveni has been at the forefront of creating the necessary stimuli. We must play our part to attain the middle income status as envisaged in the proposed Vision 2040.

Mr Mujuni is a policy-legal specialist.
benardmujuni@gmail.com