Israel stiffens payment rules
The Israeli government has toughened payment rules to all Malawians working in that country through the government-to-government labour export deal.
The deal, which has seen hundreds of youths flown to Israel, has been popular in recent times as it has accorded unskilled Malawian workers under the age of 35 to work in that country.
According to available information, Israel and Malawi governments have agreed that the latter will send 5 000 youths to work in various endeavours in agriculture-related tasks.
But in a letter which Weekend Nation has seen, Israel says the youth will only get a cash advance from the employer of not more than 10 percent of their salary.
The letter reads in part: “This communication is mandatory for all workers at farms, industry and hotels. If anyone is not ready to perform according to that agreement, he is free to contact the Recruitment Agency and ask to fly back home and release his Visa to anyone that is ready to respect his obligations.”
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson John Kabaghe could not confirm authenticity of the letter which has been shared on social media.
“We have seen the letter and we are verifying its authorship,” he said in a brief response and referred us to Ministry of Labour for more information, but the ministry’s spokesperson, Nellie Kapatuka, had not responded to our query by press time.
A senior government official at Treasury, who did not want to be named, confirmed that this was a genuine letter.
He said the stringent new rule is meant to augment Malawi’s forex exchange buffer as it will increase savings at the expense of expenditure, but on the flip side it will deny the workers of disposable income there.
“This must be looked at positively. Malawi Government is in constant touch with the Israeli Government to ensure that the labour export arrangement is beneficial to both countries,” added the source.
In his Mid-Term Budget Review Statement last month, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola-Banda indicated that Malawi had a labour agreement with some country he did not name.
Said the minister : “This initiative is expected to export not less than 5 000 job seekers in the agriculture sector. In this programme, a defined portion of all workers’ compensation will be paid directly on a monthly basis into their foreign currency denominated accounts held in our local banks. This programme will be open to all banks and it is estimated that approximately $180 million will be remitted to Malawi every year for five years from the 5,000 employees.”
In an earlier interview, Chithyola-Banda indicated that the deal with Israel was to export 5 000 workers.
The Israeli Ambassador to Malawi Michael Lotem also told our sister newspaper The Nation that their target for labour import from Malawi was 5 000, or more.
