Lobby for domestic workers pension

Five pro-women and workers’ rights organisations are lobbying the United Nations (UN) to move government to force employers to put domestic workers on pension or retirement gratuity.

They are Commercial Industrial and Allied Workers Unions, Africa End Sexual Harassment Initiative, Malawi Women Lawyers Association, Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Educational Trust-Malawi.

Among other pieces of legislation, they cite the Pension Act whose Section 6(1) (a) limits pension remittance to an employer who has more than five employees.

In the report titled Malawi’s compliance with labour obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, they argue that mostly, employers of domestic workers have less than five employees which effectively exempt them from pension contributions.

This, the five organisations, point out discriminates against their rights to social security, according to the document tagged on The UN Human Rights Office website https://tbinternet.ohchr.org

“Under the Act, the employer is obligated to contribute 10 percent, and the employee, five percent, but Section 6(1) (a) of this provision is limited to an employer who has more than five employees.

“Malawi should amend the Pension Act to make it clear that obligations to provide employees with a pension apply to all workplaces, including those employing under 5 employees,” reads the report.

On retirement gratuity, they quote Section 35A of the Employment Act that provides that the employer shall on termination, pay the employee a gratuity equal to five percent of the monthly salary for every completed year of service.

“Most employers believe that this provision is only binding on formal employers. In some cases, domestic workers receive gratuity when they retire because of the exclusion from the Pensions Act,” the report argued.

Further, the organisations are pushing government to ratify the United Nations Convention 189 on Domestic Workers which was enacted in 2011.

The treaty lays down basic rights and principles and requires states to take a series of measures to address the workers’ challenges such as low wages, long hours of work, safety and health issues, risk of abuse and harassment and discrimination.

“In Malawi’s Decent Work Country Programme 2020 to 2023 it is affirmed that the country has made a commitment to ratify Convention No. 189 as part of its National Pledge for Action to Eradicate Child Labour and Forced Labour. The timeline for the ratification is unclear,” the report observes.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Committee on Social and Community Affairs chairperson Savel Kafwafwa backed the organisations’ application, saying domestic workers are among the most vulnerable.

He, however, said his committee is advocating pension for all workers regarded as informal  workers including shop guards and those in the construction sector.

“We are not necessarily looking at domestic workers. As long as you are on a regular monthly kind of payment that should attract that 10 percent gratuity amount.

“For example, you are working in a road construction company and it happens that that road project is for three years which actually happens in our settings, those employing these people whether they call them month-to-month, it has to be applicable.

“For us, we will be so happy to support any legislation and, in that way, we need to find a discussion so that employers don’t find a way of shunning their responsibility,” said Kafwafwa in an interview on Thursday.

Meanwhile, labour analyst Robert Mkwezalamba said it was unfortunate that it has taken women rights campaigners and the unions to report Malawi to the UN.

“When we adopted the decent work agenda and developed instruments like the Malawi Decent Work Country Programme and the National Labour Policy, we committed the nation to adhere to principles as enshrined in the Convention 189.

“Thus, it ought to have been a simple task for government to review draconian labour laws and mainstream domestic workers rights besides other queries raised by unions,” he said.

The former Malawi Congress of Trade Unions secretary general observed that the country has not forcefully been pushing for domestication of the 189 Convention due to fear of being held accountable.

“Most Malawians feel empowering the domestic workers will be disastrous as they will have full rights to demand fair wages, rights at work and a pension yet the majority are surviving from food and facilities provided by the employer,” he said.

On his part, economist Wisdom Mgomezulu said pushing for domestic workers’ pensions would result in their employees laying them off for fear of economic losses.

“Domestic labour is in most cases demanded by employees. This implies that enforcing pension and gratuity benefits might lead to many employers laying off their workers as they can’t afford all that.

“For a size of the economy like that of Malawi, this move [to enforce a pension and gratuity pay] is not applicable,” said the lecturer at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural resources.

The Ministry of Labour had not responded to our questionnaire as we went for press.