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"id": 222975,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Khaniri",
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"legal_name": "George Munyasa Khaniri",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by the call for quorum, the workers in this country have been taken for granted for many years by the successive Governments. I really want to thank the Minister for bringing this Bill to protect the workers. It is only that I was taken aback by His Excellency, the President, during 1st may, 2007, on Labour Day celebrations when he took the podium, addressing workers. He concentrated on issues that do not affect workers in this country at all. This took me aback and I started wondering if they are serious about this Bill they are bringing to this House. Otherwise, I want to hail all those who were involved in drafting and putting this Bill together. I want to hail them for two reasons. First, I have gone through the Bill and it captures all areas that I would have imagined affect employee-employer relationship. Secondly, in my own opinion, there are very few amendments to be made on this particular Bill. Therefore, I would be very brief in just pointing a few areas that I think maybe, would need some amendments by this House before we can pass this Bill. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to draw the Minister's attention to Part I of the Bill which is the Preliminary. This is where they are defining disabilities. It says:- \"Disability means HIV positive or any permanent---\" It is ridiculous to describe HIV positive as a disability. We must delete this because HIV positive is a condition that can be treated, as we all know. If we put HIV positive, then we might as well put cancer. So, I think HIV positive patients are not incapacitated in any way. Therefore, it should not be classified as a disability in this Bill. I want also to draw the Minister's attention to Part II of the Bill which is the General Principles. It is on page 156, where they are talking about conditions that could be excluded from what they are terming false or compulsory labour. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Part II, Clause 4(2)(e) states: \"Minor communal services performed by members of the community in the direct interest of the said community provided the members of the community or their representatives are consulted.\" This is a very archaic piece of legislation. We are giving a leeway to the Provincial Administration, such as the chiefs, to exploit their subjects. In my opinion, this particular subclause 2(e) should be deleted from this Bill. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, turning to Part II, Clause 5(4), it says: 1248 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 9, 2007 \"An employers shall pay his employees equal remuneration for work of equal value.\" The intention of this particular subsection is very good, but I want to draw the Minister's attention to a situation where an employee is employed to perform a particular task and he works for a particular company for several years. Over the years that he is employed, his or her pay is increased. However, another employee comes later to do the same type of job. Now, this Bill suggests that the two employees must be paid a similar amount of money for the value of work done. In my view, there should be a provision to cater for this kind of scenario, because the long serving employees may get salary increment without necessarily being promoted to other scales. So, there must be a provision for that kind of situation. In the same Clause 5(6), it states that: \"In any proceedings where a contravention of this section is alleged, the employer shall bear the burden of proving that the discrimination did not take place as alleged---\" I am not a lawyer, but my friend, hon. Wetangula, is here and can bear me witness that this is contravening a section of the Constitution that says that one remains innocent until proven guilty. It is not incumbent upon the accused to---"
}