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… Read more »
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