Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report does not contain new information nor does it address the issues raised in previous comments. The Committee has been commenting for several years on the problem of deferred payment of wages in the public sector, especially in local councils. According to some accounts, thousands of council workers continue to experience several months’ delay in the payment of their wages while similar difficulties would now reportedly affect a number of private enterprises. Unfortunately, in the absence of reliable data, the Committee is not in a position to evaluate the true nature and scale of the problem nor can it comment on any measures that the Government may have taken to resolve it.

The Committee wishes once again to refer to paragraph 412 of the 2003 General Survey on the protection of wages in which it emphasized that none of the reasons normally advanced by way of excuse, such as the implementation of structural adjustment or “rationalization” plans, falling profit margins or the weakness of the economic situation, can be accepted as valid pretexts for the failure to ensure the timely and full payment to workers of the wages due for work already performed or services already rendered, as required by Article 12 of the Convention. The financial straits of a private enterprise or a public administration may be addressed in many ways, but not by the deferred payment or non-payment of the outstanding wages due to workers. The Committee therefore urges the Government to supply in its next report detailed and up to date information as to the total amount of wage debts, the number of employees affected and the time schedule for the settlement of accumulated arrears. Moreover, with reference to the proceedings initiated by the Zambia Local Authorities Workers’ Union against a number of councils, the Committee would be grateful if the Government could transmit copies of any decisions that the High Court may have rendered so far as well as practical information on the implementation of these decisions.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2007.]