Africa-Press – Lesotho. Workers Unions have slammed the newly inaugurated Prime Minister (PM) Dr. Moeketsi Majoro labelling him disrespectful towards them, by reappointing Hon.
Keketso Rants’o in the Ministry of Labour and Employment where they say she has failed dismally in her first stint. According to the Unions, Majoro knows that they have on several occasions called on
Rants’o to evacuate the office and also urged the former PM to relieve her off her duties, yet he decided to reappoint her in the same office. By so doing,
they say Majoro has disregarded the unions and the workers in general. The unions maintain that Rants’o has failed the workers on all they ever asked for,
including minimum wage increase and fully paid maternity leave for women working in factories and private security agencies. Speaking at the unions’ press conference this week National Clothing and Textile and
Allied Workers Unions (NACTWU) Secretary General Sam Mokhele deliberated that as a way to impress the employers, Rants’o unlawfully suspended minimum wages
increase while also standing in the way of 6.5% increase that the employed had initially said they were ready to offer and rather recommended 5% which was
approved. This he said is, “an unfortunate act that further contributes to the woes of poor workers that are already earning peanuts. ” The unions went on to order for the Minister’s removal from the ministry before Friday
this week or otherwise the workers will strong-arm the government to implementation of their requests thereafter. They went on to applaud the government for delivering the promised M800 money for factory workers.
However they stated that some of the workers were left out because they unfortunately did not submit their documents to the Lesotho National Development Cooperation
(LNDC). This the unions maintain that, that wouldn’t have been the case had the
government engaged the unions in the facilitation of the process. They further urged the government to immediately issue the 2020-21 gazette with increase of minimum wage and should be implemented.
Another call was for the government to continue to pay factory workers M800 for the remaining two months as promised without any new conditions as the effects of national lockdown
continue to hit them hard. The represented associations were NACTWU, UNITE, Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho (IDUL) Lesotho Workers Association (LEWA) Construction, Mining and Quarrying (CMQ) and Lentsoe La Sechaba.
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