Uganda does not suffer the dearth of
instruments highlighting democracy and human rights. Our constitution is
called a human rights constitution. The whole of chapter four addresses
human rights, a situation that has led many people to dub it: the
Ugandan bill of rights. Many rights enshrined in the international bill
of rights are replicated therein. We also have numerous Acts of
parliament aimed at promoting and protecting the rights of different
social groups.
Despite the fact that Uganda has ratified 31 ILO
Conventions including all the eight core conventions, observance of
these rights has drastically eluded us. The country is seething with
high levels of unemployment and underemployment, worst forms of child
labour, sordid working conditions for workers, squalid accommodation
for the police force, miserable wages, high levels of hire and fire of
the employees, absence of employment policy, sectarianism, nepotism and
corruption among others. All these deal a hard blow to our workers.
One of the most contentious areas is social security
or social protection. The government uses (some believe it misuses and
abuses) the National Social Security Fund the way it wants without due
regard to the workers who in an actual sense are the owners of the
money. The government proposes that the National Health Insurance scheme
be funded by workers and employers in addition to the contribution made
to the National Social Security Fund. This follows the Local Service
Tax which is being paid already. Workers now feel that the government is
bent on encroaching on their meager earnings to fund its activities
without due regard to their plight.
The right to social security is born out of
convention 102 on minimum standards. The ILO Convention provides for
nine forms of benefits which include among others medical care benefits
and health insurance benefits. Uganda seems to have adamantly refused to
ratify convention 102 so that it could be bound by the provisions
therein. Uganda has ratified the tripartite consultation convention
(convention 144) yet it continues to sideline the other two partners in
matters of concern to them. Experience has shown that the government in a
number of cases calls workers and employers to give them lectures and
not for consultation.
On 30th June 2007, Hon Otafiire on KFM stated that he
wouldn’t agree with workers on local service tax unless they showed him
an alternative source of funding. Dr Francis Runumi, commissioner of
Planning in the ministry of health said the National Health Insurance
must be passed. One therefore wonders whether the Ugandan workers are
not punching bags.
It is possible that workers in Uganda are taken for
granted because of the absence of a strong trade union movement. In
countries like Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Zambia, and South Africa and
neighbouring Kenya, trade unions are a force to reckon with. The trade
unions are so influential in these countries that they can determine who
should be in power or not. In South Africa, the role of COSATU in the
ANC government cannot be underrated. In Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai got
all the clout he has partly because of his leadership in Zimbabwe
Congress of Free Trade Unions.
On the other hand, here in Uganda, trade unions are
preoccupied with internal squabbles. They have hardly mobilized and
recruited members and are appendages to the National Resistance Movement
(NRM) government. If you are deemed not to be an NRM, you are thrown
out of the trade union leadership. In fact the entire Workers’ MPs stood
on the NRM ticket. Are they NRM or Workers’ MPs? In the run-up to the
2006 elections, Central Organisation of Free Trade Unions (COFTU) broke
off from National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU) following the
elections in NOTU in which Dr Sam Lyomoki and Mr Kahirita emerged
losers. It could be possible they never viewed the exercise as free and
fair.
Another labour centre, Confederation of Labour Unions
(COLU) has been formed following the elections in NOTU that were
reportedly marred by irregularities which threw out the outspoken former
Vice Chairman, Irene Kaboole, whose passion for workers’ rights has
remained unswerving. The total number of unionized workers is less than
1,000,000 (1 million) in Uganda. Some union leaders occupy two fulltime
positions. For example, two Members of Parliament are at the same time
General Secretaries of their Union positions that entitles them to two
salaries. This smacks of greed.
The leadership of some unions is comprised of
semi-illiterates whose main preoccupation is not the betterment of
workers’ welfare but self aggrandizement. In many Unions, if you are a
university graduate, that is enough to disqualify you from getting a job
there. The leaders and some staff members fear that you might catch the
eye of the donors hence blocking them from the spoils or that you may
use that as a platform to contest as a workers’ Member of Parliament.
This intrigue has cost our unions talented and skilled potential
employees who would authoritatively advocate workers’ rights in
Uganda.
This intrigue has also affected other labour rights
civil society organizations as unions try blocking them from accessing
funds from International Labour Organisation. It is prudent that since
all workers’ MPs are from Labour Unions, the unions address all the
workers’ concerns whether unionized or not. But apparently, unions seem
to be impotent. From the foregoing, one may ask the following
questions: are Labour unions in Uganda as they are now qualified to
represent Ugandan workers? Can Ugandan workers count on the Labour
Unions to effectively articulate their interests?
Labour Unions should neither be anti-NRM nor pro-NRM but pro-workers, regardless of their political inclinations. That is their raison d’etre.
By Vincent Nuwabaga
The writer is a human rights defender and was a HUGGO-Danida Intern
at the National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU).vnuwagaba@gmail.com
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