NHCC, Museums workers threaten to close Vic Falls
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
PROTESTING NHCC and National Museums Board workers intend to force the closure of Victoria Falls to press for implementation of the 2022 improved conditions of service.
And the University of Zambia and Allied Workers Union (UNZAAWU) has accused Ministry of Tourism permanent secretary Evans Muhanga of not being keen to achieve improved conditions of service for workers under his ministry.
According to a National Heritage Conservation Commission worker who spoke on condition of anonymity the workers will carry placards and block the entrance to Zambia’s only World Heritage Site inscribed by UNESCO in 1989.
“Come tomorrow and you will find us here and I can tell you that this will not be a good image for Zambia because the whole world will see that someone is no doing his job correctly,” the worker said. “All we need is what was given to us through a bargaining unit. We are not demanding for things that are not yet agreed on, is that wrong? And when we do this I can tell you that no tourist will enter the falls. They will run to Zimbabwe.”
The iconic waterfall has never been closed to the public before.
According to a 2022 collective agreement REF: NHCC/101/05/1 sent to the Labour Commissioner on May 19 and signed by Monday Mungaila for NHCC management and Moonga Mupuma who is the University of Zambia and Allied Workers Union general secretary, the bargaining unit concluded the negotiations for the 2022 collective agreement for NHCC unionised employees on April 26 at Choma Museum Craft Centre.
“The specific conditions which were reviewed include the following: salary increment of K1,009.00 had been awarded to all employees per month with effect from 1st January 2022; repatriation allowance for normal retirement, early retirement, medical discharge was increased to K15,000 across the board,” the agreement reads in part.
As for National Museums workers, the conditions of service for 2022 were adjusted upwards by K920 across the board at a bargaining unit meeting held from May 26 to 27 and the memorandum of understanding was signed by National Museums Board (NMB) acting director general George Mudenda while UNZAAWU president Gasi Giancarlo signed for unionised workers.
The memorandum of understanding adds that non-salary related allowances would be with effect from June 1, 2022.
And in a press statement read by Giancarlo at the Victoria Falls, Mupuma said unionised workers under NHCC and the NMB would jointly begin a sit-in-protest today.
He expressed displeasure that Muhanga who gave a go ahead for the salary negotiations on March 30 was now U-turning over the implementation of the same.
“It took chest-breaking arguments with the current permanent secretary Evans Muhanga for him to give a directive on 30th March, 2022 for negotiations in the two institutions to commence. Surprisingly in a move that has taken our members completely aback the same permanent secretary who gave a go ahead for the negotiations has U-turned after the negotiations have been concluded claiming he has no authority to allow implementation of the agreements of the bargaining unit because there are no management boards in place,” Mupuma said.
He said the union has noted that the absence of the management boards in NHCC and NMB is now being used by Muhanga to “perpetuate infringements of our rights to negotiate for our members contrary to labour laws”.
Mupuma further noted that there are other institutions that have no management boards but are having their improved conditions of service implemented.
“Could it be that our permanent secretary is not keen to achieve improvement of conditions of service for workers under his ministry? Secondly we would like to know what is causing the delay in forming the two boards given that other institutions have had their boards announced… because of the situation stated above our members at both NHCC and NMB have resolved to stage a sit-in-protest on Wednesday 15th June to press for the following: immediate implementation of the 2022 collective agreement and release of information regarding the installation of the respective institutions management boards,” said Mupuma.