80 per cent of workers ‘have no contracts’

Dar es Salaam. Over 80 per cent of workers in the corporate sector do not have formal employment contracts, according to a new report. The survey suggests that many employers are getting away with crime right under the noses of non-responsive or compromised regulatory bodies.

The report, Human Rights and Business, reveals that workers, especially those in the informal sector that remains largely unchecked, are suffering in silence. A poor legal enforcement mechanism and a toothless trade union movement are some of the hurdles employees face across the board, according to the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), which conducted the study.

The findings of the study that covered 15 regions in Tanzania mainland were presented yesterday at a press conference in Dar es Salaam. LHRC official Clarence Kipobota, who carried out the research, said most employers resort to casual labour to avoid the legal responsibilities that go with formal employment contracts.

According to the study, more than 90 per cent of the contracts fall short of human rights standards. The areas surveyed include gender, the environment, land and labour rights. “We interviewed over 1,000 respondents from 153 companies and 121 government offices and found out that over 90 per cent of employment contracts lack some labour rights and, at the same time, set negative standards against workers,” Mr Kipobota added.

Of the entire workforce in the country, the study shows, only 6.5 per cent have joined social security funds. The survey team reportedly scrutinised 19 written contracts and only one met all requirements of the Labour Relations Act of 2004. Even then, only 1.9 per cent of discontented workers were able to lodge cases in labour courts.

According to Mr Kipobota, many discontented workers do not lodge cases in labour courts for fear that this would put their jobs in jeopardy.

The study also reveals that 60 per cent of trade unions are dormant even though they have a presence in 41.6 per cent of workplaces.

Speaking during the launch, LHRC Executive Director Helen Kijo-Bisimba said the government should strengthen labour law enforcement through labour officers, trade unions and employer associations. “Most of the challenges highlighted in this report are attributed to lack of awareness by workers and some employers,” Dr Bisimba added.

On land rights, the study shows that land grabbing rises as investment expands. Only 8.3 per cent of the respondents said they had bargained fairly with the government and investors. According to Mr Kipobota, a large part of land in the hands of investors had not been developed, yet 73.9 per cent of locals had been denied access to the dormant land.

Mr Kipobota said the study established that firms, which are technically the largest taxpayers, did not pay up. As a result, Tanzania loses billions of shillings through tax evasion and exemption from taxes. From 2010 to 2012, exemptions amounted to more than Sh600 billion-- which is equivalent to 14.1 per cent of expected actual collection. The country also loses about Sh1 trillion a year through illicit financial flows, said Mr Kipobota.

“There has been more than $602 million worth of unrecorded or undervalued cross-border transactions at Namanga (Tanzania-Kenya border),” says the report.

As for the working environment, the study shows that only 24 per cent of workplaces are registered with the Occupational Safety and Health Authority (Osha) and more than 75 per cent of corporate companies operate in disregard of occupational health and safety regulations. The study found that gender-based violence in workplaces appeared to have dropped. Still, the study shows that sexual assaults accounted for 28.3 per cent of gender-based violence in the workplace.