Labour union quashes Chakwera suggestion to change working hours
Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) have described as counter-productive Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera’s decision to reduce the working hours once voted into power.
Chakwera said at a rally that once MCP is voted into power, it would change the start of working day from the currenfrom 7.30am to 8.30am to give workers more time to attend to their domestic affairs.
But the MCTU president Luther Mambala said this was counter-productive.
“This means many Malawians will be reporting for duties later than the 8:30am. This is counter-productive because the working hours will be very few for an efficient and effective civil service,” said Mambala.
However, the MCP publicist Maurice Munthali said the idea is viable.
“The idea is to enhance efficiency. This is the norm the world over,” he said.
A political scientist at Chancellor College Mustafa Hussein said the idea is viable as long as people are serious with their work ethics.
“The important thing is productivity, as long as workers work hard for those hours, there is no problem,” he said.
Countries such as South Africa, Uganda, Botswana and Rwanda start work at 8:30am their time.
Chakwera should avoid being overzealous. We need to re-cultivate a culture of hardworkingness if Malawi is to redeem itself from this self-inflicted poverty. Do not encourage laziness. In fact we need Youth Week back
Kupha dziko. We should be looking at increasing working hours and not reducing them.
This is a good idea. What do these workers do at work all those hours apart from playing bao and watching videos on their laptops? You don’t need to spend your whole life at work to be productive!
Mambala, Mambala, Mambala, long work hours don’t necessarily mean high productivity!! Secondly, when you say many workers shall be coming late, it means you condone late reporting for duties among civil servants!! Lastly, during the announcement of the proposed reporting time for duties, Chakwera didn’t mention the knockoff time! As such it is too early to conclude that work hours in civil service will be reduced.
If we are really serious about developing our Country, these are the kind of reforms we need to be starting with(prioritise), it’s been proven that being at work doesn’t necessarily mean that one is working productively, i’ve seen people who report to work early but still lag far behind their workmates in terms of results. we should be aiming to create a favourable working environment, one that is not infested with excuses and stress, One that creates a sense of pride and enhances willingness to work and above all one that will not interfere(impact negatively) with one’s personal relationships. so according to me this is a good move for starters, and should be applauded in strongest terms.
The Labor laws need to change first. 48 hours per week is just too much. People waste time doing nothing especially in the civil service. The courts are the worst service providers. The cases take too long because the magistrates and judges start hearing cases at 11 am. The IRC leaves a lot to be desired. There is a lot of time wasting in Malawi. This is the only country you will see traffic jams all day meaning that people are not working. This a shithole country.
I agree with Luther.That is indeed counter productive.There are better ways of wooing voters.
It’s not about wooing voters, it’s about how we can best achieve our objectives, which is making this country as productive as it can be. this idea is not a short term fix, but rather a long term one. 7:30 hrs has failed to produce desirable results in Malawi since being effected, i can confirm to you that Malawi is technically the poorest country in the world, no country is worse than Malawi despite our closest rivals being war torn for several years.
i there better ways to increase productivity. policy issue of this nature should be evidence based. do we have statistic in support of the thinking that starting at 8:30 would increase productivity.
President oganizira anthu ake uyu sindidamuone and this is happening just before he is in the govt what if he is given mandate this country will be warm heart Africa again. God bless our leader Dr. Chakwera with abundant blessings to develop Malawi.
Mambala or Nthabwala as his name suggests don’t comment on things you have information about. Workers in Malawi report very early compared to other countries and yet Malawi has the most unproductive workforce. You do not need 24hours of working to be productive in fact Malawian at the moment we are allocated 8 working hour in a day but if i may ask do people really spend all the 8 hours working?
This is the mindset that we need to change. Mr. Mambala vote for MCP and Chakwera at least they will help to change you.
I think a Luther wa sanafufuze maiko ena omwe akutukuka pamene Malawi yoyamba ntchito 7:30 koma chisaukireni ena oyamba 9:00 koma chuma chawo chili bwino
imagine the kind of stupidity 8.30am,i will be there at 10am
Why is this stupid? Are you running away from home from your wife? Why report so early to work? To f*ck the secretary?
What is the union talking about here? I have been to government and a number of private offices at 8:00 am only to be told that the officers I was looking for are not yet in. I drive around town between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and see lots of my colleagues driving to work. Is the union not being unrealistic with its arguments? And take it or leave it, most public servants in Malawi don’t work even the so called professionals. So stop petty arguments.
So if they will be starting work at 8.30 hrs it will be worse.
If they continue with their laziness. The problem with this union leader is that he is not telling us what makes them turn up late at government offices. He already comes to office at 09;00 and says 08;30 will be counterproductive, how?? There is already no productivity in any government office between 07:30 and 08:30 everyday in the current status quo.
Ayi, Vinjenje. The late reporting means that people don’t agree with this 730 nonsense. If the time is changed to reflect reality, people will be more likely to respect it. In the West people start office work sometimes as late as 9am but they are productive. Inu you start at 730 to gossip and play 1980s video games on outdated computers.
Labour union munene munyamata wa DPP uyu. Please funsani credible people osati Luther Mambala. He is not only mambala wachachabe koma ndi mwana weni weni a adad uyu. He can’t give you unbiased opinion of an issue like this one.
Typical of Malawians! Resisting change. We will change working hours anyway
8:30 am is just realistic. This useless union dude is dull. He should have known that a productive worker is one who comes to work with a feeling of happiness, having done all he would want to do that morning. Japan goes to work at 9:45 am. People are productive not because they go to work very early in the morning. If you ask HR personnel, they will tell you its because of motivation. One motivating factor is giving room for workers to report for work after taking breakfast and have ample time to travel to work. That is what is practical world over.
Pa dzana iloooo anthu amayamba ncito 0730 palibe amacedwa. Pano amayamba ndi bwana kufika 1000 kloko ku ncito, he syays for 2 hrs mwina or less then out of the ofc kukaendera ma personal projects kukabhooker ma hule, olo kuyendera makule mma hotlamu etc. Ma seceratary memo book thooo ndi ma msg.
Kale palibe ankacedwa ku ofesi.
Is Mr Mambala speaking for workers or DPP? He is both so you can’t just tell.
Kikhalitsa pa msika sindiye kuti malonda akuyenda. As indicated our neughbors starts 8:30 or 9:00 and knock off at 4:00. What we need is efficiency. There are ways to complement that only administrators knows this.
This is why we are still poor, because we want to live a life that we feel is good, no sacrifice to make. The country that are reach run 24/7 production, hospitals security, but us we are happy to wear a white shirt with necktie yet our pockets are empty. That men’s there will be more poverty knocking on our door, corruption cases will triple, robbery will increase because we are taking a liaise fair approach . Malawians we need to discern, this will not help the nation, poor empty promises like those of Millions jobs. I wonder is the sugar plant in Chikwawa or Nkhotakota adding their staff together can go beyond a hundred thousand. Stop lying please.
On Sunday Night Laz was on Mibawa TV…He talked about Millions that are Lost Every Year…Chifukwa cha Anthu kubwera Mochedwa kutchito.He talked about achieving Efficiency… Workers becoming Accountable on What they have Done- Ntchito Yomwe Agwira pa Sikulo.But We want to Continue to Start work at 730 pomwe Timatofika chamma 10 ndikusowa chamma 2pm…Laz Akuzitsata Zinthuzi.
Nkhani simukuyimvetsa
Luther, can u please do a very short research in atleast countries. Thereafter report back to us.. You seem to be missing some of exposures in as far as work productivity is concerned.
How many hours do civil servants really stay in their offices to work? What time do banks open?
Banks open to the public at 8 and usually close at 3 pm but they report earlier than 8 to get ready for business. They also knock off late to balance and consolidate the day’s business. Amazisekera mkati muja! So argument should not be based on them!
Most civil servants are lazy. They report late and knock off early. But for banks, they start at 8am and knock off at 6 or 7 pm. so we can not use the bank for comparison because the civil servants can not knock off at 7pm . They will be happy to come at 10am and knock off at 12 noon.