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ICFTU report condemns deplorable conditions for workers in Malawi

Brussels 6 February, 2002 (ICFTU online): A new report released by the ICFTU
has condemned the deplorable situation faced by working people in Malawi and
challenged the government to meet its obligations to protect its citizens.
Despite having ratified all of the eight ILO conventions on core labour
standards, the situation for the hundreds of thousands of child labourers,
women and for the majority of workers in general, remains as miserable as
ever. As the report states, "in view of restrictions on the trade union
rights of plantation workers and workers in EPZ's, and problems with
anti-union discrimination and child labour, determined measures are needed
to comply with the commitments Malawi has accepted."

The ICFTU evaluation report was written to coincide with the WTO trade
policy review of Malawi being conducted in Geneva on 6 and 8 February, and
is the latest in a series of such reports issued by the ICFTU. The Malawi
Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) is the ICFTU's affiliated organisation in
Malawi.

Plantations of export crops, including tobacco, tea and sugar, account for
approximately three quarters of all exports earnings in Malawi. The tobacco
plantations are the single biggest plank in Malawi's trade strategy, and yet
according to the ICFTU report, "its workers face severe poverty and poor
working conditions." An agreement has been signed between the Tobacco
Tenants and Allied Workers' Union, the MCTU and the Tobacco Association of
Malawi (TAMA) to recognise the unions, to encourage collective bargaining
and to eliminate child labour.

Yet child labour in these areas continues unabated. The report states that,
"more than twenty per cent of the workforce on commercial plantations,
especially tobacco plantations, are children. Much child labour on these
commercial plantations is hidden because the tenant farming system
encourages the whole family to work. Many children are kept from school in
order to contribute to the family growing effort, and smaller children are
often kept from school in order to perform the domestic tasks that the
parents and older siblings are not available to perform. The ILO estimates
that over 440,000 children between the ages of 10 and 14 are economically
active in Malawi, which constitutes over thirty per cent of this age group."

Bonded labour, although in breach of the Malawi Constitution and ILO core
conventions, still persists, and is especially prevalent on tobacco
plantations. Tobacco tenants have exclusive arrangements, often non-written,
with the estate owners to sell their crop and to buy inputs such as
fertiliser, seed and often food. These inputs, in addition to rent charges,
often outweigh the artificially low price received for the tobacco crop,
leading to a situation of debt and bonded labour to repay the debts.

With regard to the ILO core labour standards of freedom of association and
the right to collective bargaining, despite the fact that Malawi has signed
both conventions, "little over ten percent of the workforce operate under
formal conditions and have recourse to the various instruments of labour
legislation."

While workers in essential services are permitted to strike after certain
prescribed procedures have been met, the lack of specification as to which
services are essential and which are not, results in many strikes being
declared illegal, and the striking workers being the target of police
violence. Indeed, the president, general secretary and deputy general
secretary of the MCTU have all been held without charges at a Lilongwe
police station. The President of Malawi alleged that the MCTU was being used
by other organisations, including opposition parties, to bring unrest to
Malawi. An MCTU-arranged public demonstration regarding negotiations between
the government and the IMF was brutally suppressed by the police, resulting
in numerous arrests and 15 people injured.

Discrimination against women is also widespread. Women's access to many
forms of employment is greatly restricted, especially to more secure and
higher paying administrative and managerial positions, only 5 per cent of
which are held by women. Many women and girls work in domestic service, in
conditions condemned by the ICFTU as in many cases being akin to bonded
labour.

"Poverty is rife in Malawi," said ICFTU Secretary General Guy Ryder, "and
the situation for the majority of workers is dire. Without concerted efforts
on behalf of the Malawi government to respect the core labour standards to
which they have repeatedly agreed, improvement for the beleaguered
population looks distinctly far off."

The ICFTU represents 157 million workers in 225 affiliated organisations in
148 countries and territories. ICFTU is also a member of Global Unions:
http://www.global-unions.org

For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224
0232 or +32 476 62 10 18.

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