Youth must rise for a new employment order
What you need to know:
- A 2023 report by the African Development Bank estimated that 53 percent of Ugandan graduates are either unemployed or working in unpaid or underpaid roles masked as internships or volunteerism.
We must soberly reflect on the state of labour in our country, particularly the plight of young Ugandans. For far too long, Labour Day has become a perfunctory ritual of speeches, parades, and photo-ops.
At the same time, the working conditions of the majority remain an open sore on the nation's conscience. We stand at a labour crossroads. One road leads to renewed citizen action and systemic reform; the other to further precarity, frustration, and unrest. It is high time we chose courage over convenience. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) 2021 Labour Market Survey paints a bleak picture: youth aged 18–30 constitute over 78 percent of Uganda’s unemployed.
Worse still, 35percent are underemployed, toiling in roles far below their educational qualifications and earning far less than they deserve. Despite producing an estimated 400,000 graduates annually, Uganda’s formal sector only absorbs between 80,000 to 90,000 people each year, mostly in government, telecoms, banking, and hospitality. That leaves many young professionals annually funnelled into informal, unstable, and low-paying labour markets or left entirely idle.
This crisis is not merely a statistical issue, it is an existential threat to national development, peace, and dignity. Uganda is among only two countries in East Africa, alongside Burundi, that lack an operational national minimum wage. This, despite Article 40 of the 1995 Constitution and Section 13 of the Employment Act (2006), which give Parliament and the Executive full authority to set and enforce wage floors for the protection of workers. In 2018, the Minimum Wage Advisory Board, comprised of government, workers, and employers, recommended a minimum monthly wage of Shs130,000. Parliament unanimously passed the Minimum Wage Bill. But to date, President Yoweri Museveni has not signed it into law, citing fears of discouraging investors, a dangerous argument that trades citizen welfare for profit margins. By comparison: Kenya enforces a sector- and region-specific minimum wage, with the lowest-paid workers earning KSh15,120 (about Shs423,117).
Tanzania mandates between TZSh100,000 and TZSh400,000 (Shs134,784– Shs539,136). Rwanda, in 2022, implemented a sectoral minimum wage, with emphasis on vulnerable industries such as hospitality, domestic work, and agriculture. In Uganda, more than 65 percent of workers in the private sector, particularly in security, retail, and domestic service, earn below Shs100,000 per month, according to the Uganda Workers’ Education Association. This is economic violence. Several corporate restructurings and foreign acquisitions have left local employees discarded like obsolete tools. Labour inspection reports from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (2022) document violations such as: No written contracts, forced overtime without pay, non-payment of social security, discriminatory hiring and firing, sexual exploitation, particularly of female workers in textile factories and domestic workers. The most heartbreaking reality is the normalisation of "volunteer contracts" among graduates.
A 2023 report by the African Development Bank estimated that 53 percent of Ugandan graduates are either unemployed or working in unpaid or underpaid roles masked as internships or volunteerism. This breeds a culture of self-doubt, dependency, and burnout, where the most energetic and talented youth are rendered economically impotent. Although Uganda has laws, such as the Employment Act (2006) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (2006), implementation is nearly non-existent. Labour courts, as provided for in the Judicature Act (Cap 13) and the Industrial Court Act, are underfunded and inaccessible to most young workers. Meanwhile, foreign firms continue to exploit regulatory weaknesses. For example: Some foreign construction companies have been reported to pay Shs3,000 per day to Ugandan casual labourers. Some factories have been documented to deduct pay for bathroom breaks and enforce 15-hour shifts. These cases are routinely settled "internally" or silenced through intimidation.
To avert a social explosion and economic stagnation, Uganda must urgently enact a New Employment Order. The following reforms are non-negotiable: 1. National Minimum Wage Act, indexed to inflation and reviewed every two years. 2. Labour courts in all regions to fast-track employer-employee disputes. 3. Mandatory written contracts for all employment engagements, even in informal sectors. 4. Protection of interns and volunteers, with a clear framework for pay, duration, and transition to employment. 5. Youth labour unionisation, starting at the university and community levels. 6. A national graduate absorption programme, involving government, private sector, and civil society. 7. A labour inspector's expansion plan, to employ at least 1,000 inspectors over the next 5 years. 8. Punitive measures for labour rights violators, including deregistration and criminal liability.
Authored Alex Atwemereireho,
