President Peter Mutharika has said he will not hesitate to send packing within 24 hours all foreign employers who will be found ill-treating Malawian workers.
His remarks come almost a month after the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services deported a 64-year-old Austrian, Hinteregger Jurgen, for directing racist remarks at a Malawian worker.
Jurgen—who was a workshop manager at Strabag International which is constructing the Mzuzu- Nkhata Bay Road—allegedly called the worker a ‘monkey’.
Speaking when the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) met him to discuss some issues affecting workers in the country, Mutharika said employers must respect their workers and racism will not be entertained in the country.
“The way some foreign employers are mistreating their workers is uncalled for. Please, we need some respect. As long as I am the president, such [conduct] will not be allowed in the country,” he said
Among other issues, MCTU President Luther Mambala said the union is proposing a review of the minimum wage which is currently pegged around K19,000.
Mambala, however, said they have not yet settled on a figure, saying that would be done during a proposed tripartite meeting with the Employers Consultative Association of Malawi and the Ministry of Labour, Youth Sports and Manpower Development.
“Looking at the economic hardships in the country, we are appealing to the President to intervene and call the Ministry of Labour to come up with the tripartite meeting where we can discuss the increase of the minimum wage,” he said
Mambala further said MCTU is concerned about some employers who are refusing workers to form trade unions in their respective workplaces.
“We want the President to intervene so that each and every workplace should allow its workers to trade unionism. We have noted that some of the unscrupulous employers do not allow the formation or establishment of trade unions,” he said
This is the first meeting between Mutharika and the union after MCTU elected its new executive committee on 22 December 2016.
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