Written by Raymond Musinguzi
As we celebrate International Labour Day, it is important to note that no organisation, however powerful, is more important than the people who work for it. Without labour, the gifts of nature will remain unutilized. This highlights that labour is an essential and active factor of production. Every year 1st of May is marked as the International Labour Day, to recognise the efforts of workers and their contribution towards the development of nations.
In Uganda, it’s a day to celebrate the achievements that workers, employers and government have made over a period of time and most importantly how labour is an essential input to the economic development of the country.
According to the MD NWSC Dr. Eng Silver Mugisha, Labour is the measure of output against input. In the case of National Water and Sewerage Corporation, staff productivity is measured based on the number of staff per 1000 connections. The corporation puts particular emphasis on issues of labour productivity, staff welfare and collaboration between the given players.
NWSC-MD, Dr. Eng. Silver Mugisha reiterated that the corporation has a tripartite arrangement with the government on one side and the employees on the other as well as the employer hence labour day being celebrated in a tripartite manner with the three players working in close collaboration as expected by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Labour day helps the Corporation to focus on a number of areas such as employee welfare where the board and management working together with the union leadership has made significant inroads in improving staff conditions in the human resource manual for example staff who have 25 years of uninterrupted service will be entitled to self-medical insurance for life, those with 30 years of uninterrupted service will be entitled to a long service award, self-medical insurance for life and a contribution on land should the staff be interested in purchasing a plot of land in their retirement and in the event that an employee serves for more than 35 years, he or she shall be entitled to all the above stipulated benefits.
The corporation has also put in place a number of recipes to improve labour productivity and key amongst them is personal development of the staff however Dr. Mugisha has urged the staff to watch their life styles and invest the little resources at their disposal and pledged that management will focus on improving their welfare through timely payment of salaries and gratuities.
He has reemphasized the need for collaboration between the employees, employer and the government who is the sole shareholder of the institution and whose expectations have to be met, for example improvement in increased number of connections, water production and increased number of people served amongst others however, to achieve all this, the board and management acknowledge that staff welfare is paramount.
Labour day is also a day to celebrate employment creation and where possible the corporation will enable more Ugandans to get employed as well as enable improvement of employees’ terms. Dr. Mugisha has also called for a mindset change amongst his staff to see to it that they work towards water for all to the delight of the customers as the management works towards their delight. The three pillars are very important as far as the purpose of the corporation is concerned, water for all for a delighted customer by a delighted workforce.
