Staff up in arms against leadership for not devolving ministry’s function for 27 years
By Deogratias Mmana:
Twenty seven years after the Decentralisation Policy, the Ministry of Labour is still stuck in many ways in the old governance system.
Now employees in the ministry are angry at this failure and other related issues, which they indicate have led to them also getting stuck in their grades.
Things boiled over recently when the staff vented their frustration in a letter to their Principal Secretary.
“We write to declare a dispute over unresolved issues of functional review of the ministry and promotions. Efforts to reach out to management to resolve the issues internally have proven futile. In view of the aforementioned, we the labour officers, are declaring a dispute,” reads the letter with a Ministry of Labour stamp dated February 18, 2025.
The employees threatened to stage a sit in in 21 days.
One correspondence on their WhatsApp forum reads: “What we would like to hear now is that management has met to resolve the outstanding issues.
“We are on the ground. Our fellow civil servants have been promoted from grade P5 and P7. Why not Labour? “
The staff pressure on the matter forced the Principal Secretary Chikondano Mussa to summon regional and district labour officers to a meeting on February 21, 2025.
“Further to the resolution of the virtual management meeting held on 15th February, 2025 in respect of grievances raised by labour officers on the current functional review of the ministry, devolution and promotions, I am pleased to invite you to a meeting to be held at Lilongwe Technical College on Friday 21st February 2025 to discuss the said concerns, “ reads the letter signed by Mussa.
According to the correspondence on the staff forum, authorities advised the staff to form a task force to help push the matters with the management but the staff trashed the idea. They argued that it was another ploy to further delay the devolution process because they said the matters had already been discussed.
On February 27, 2025, Mussa wrote to all district commissioners through a circular No. MOL/C/1 in which she said she was handing over district labour offices to the local government authorities.
“In order to effect the devolution of responsibilities, human resources and financing to the LGAs [Local Government Authorities], the Ministry of Labour will hand over all personal files and related resources as well as relevant materials to the respective District Commissioners in their current form, grade and state.”
One of the staff members said: “Our authorities in the ministry have been sitting on devolution. All what they are doing now is to buy time. They have been saying that all these years. They want to continue to cling to power,” the employee said.
In an interview on Thursday, Mussa said the ministry is addressing the matter.
“We had a meeting where we clarified all those issues when we saw there were misunderstandings.
“Some boycotted the meeting. We discussed and we drew a road map on the issue. No-one can blame us,” she said.
Mussa said the ministry delayed the process because it wanted to negotiate for higher positions.
“If people do not want to follow procedures they will be in the dark. If they boycotted the meeting, they will be in the dark,” Mussa said.
Among other things, the policy provides for the devolution of administration and political authority to the district level and integration of government agencies at the district and local levels into one administrative unit.
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