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The Post (Lusaka)
EDITORIAL
MANY Zambian workers are getting "slave" wages.

And we agree with opposition Forum for Democracyand Development (FDD) chairman for labour and socialdevelopment Sketchley Sacika that there should be noroom for slave wages in Zambia.

It is a fact that most Zambian workers earn very littleand there's need for the government to set a minimumwage.

And the government, being the largest employer in thecountry should take the lead in ensuring that workersget reasonable wages. The government currentlystands among the worst employers.

We know that under the current economiccircumstances it will not be easy for companies toabsorb high wage bills in addition to other productionfactors that are already too high in most sectors.

But why should the workers be the only burdenbearers?

Business is not generally difficult or failing because ofhigh wage bills.

It is failing in most sectors because of fiscal factorsand trade arrangements which are a responsibility ofgovernment.

Instead of giving transnational corporations huge andunjustified tax rebates - some of them obtainedcorruptly - these can go to improving workers' wagesin line with set minimum wages.

In fact high wages are good for the economy becausewith the necessary culture they can increase savings,purchasing power and consequently production ofgoods and services.

While it may not necessarily be convenient to put inplace minimum wage legislation, the governmentshould first show its commitment through awarding thecivil servants and other public workers reasonablewages.

This will give the government the necessary moralauthority to give guidelines on the minimum wage.

The example the government will set on the minimumwage will, as a result of competition, be followed bymany sectors of the economy.

The government's setting of a minimum wage will alsogive trade unions increased morale and strength intheir wage negotiations.

In line with the minimum wage, the government willneed to review its Pay-As-You-Earn rates.

It is necessary for the government to create afavourable atmosphere not only for capital but also forlabour - capital as a factor of production cannot all byitself develop a country's economy.

The government needs to create an equally favourableatmosphere for labour as it is doing for capital.

But workers should know that the minimum wage willnot come without a fight.

The worker has to keep up a constant fight in order toobtain some small benefit in this economic order. Hehas to fight so that his most elemental rights would berespected. The worker should know that what he didnot do for himself nobody else will do it for him. Theworker should know that what he does not win by hisown work nobody will win for him.

The worker always works for others. The worker didhis own work and the work of others. But nobody everworks for the worker. The worker gives everything -his sweat and energy - with generosity. The workergives his life. Many times he denies himself his hours ofrest. He gives to everybody, but to him nobody evergives anything. What he doesn't do for himself, nobodywill ever do for him.

Although the workers are the ones who produce all thewealth and - together with the intellectual workers -produce all the wealth, many of those who producedeverything did not even have the opportunity to learn tosign their names, they have no signatures - they don'texist politically.

They speak to the worker of civil rights. In thatsituation of civil rights the worker's child could die ofhunger before the unconcerned glance of thegovernment. Their children could be left withoutlearning to read or write a single letter and theythemselves have to go and sell their work at the pricethat they wanted to pay them for it and wheneveranybody was interested in buying it from them.

They speak to the workers of rights that never existedfor them. Their children could not even be sure of theright to a school. Their children could not beguaranteed even the right to a doctor. Their children donot have the guaranteed right even to a small plate ofnshima, and they themselves do not have theguarantee even to the right to wo rk.