Uganda: Government to Fix Minimum Wage

By Staff Writer

Minimum wage that has been at the centre of advocacy by workers organizations for a long time will be fixed by June 2014, State Minister for Labour, Mwesigwa Rukutana has said.

Rukutana said the government had prepared a motion which will soon be presented to Cabinet to reactivate the Minimum Wages Advisory Board.

Addressing the press at the convention in Geneva-Switzerland on Thursday June 5, the minister announced government’s commitment to undertake a re-adjustment of the minimum wage.

The statement comes after complaints we launched on the operationalization of the minimum wage fixing-machinery for Uganda at the ongoing Committee of Experts on the application of Conventions and Recommendations in ensuring observance of labour standards.

While his counterpart in Kenya, Kazungu Kambi told workers that the government must first determine the country’s economic performance at the end of the year before it can arrange talks to increase their salaries, during Labour Day Celebrations at Uhuru Park Nairobi on May 1

Arinaitwe Rwakajara, Workers MP recently tabled a private member’s Bill Minimum Wage Bill 2013 seeking to emphasize standardization of wages for all employees set by a representative board.

Uganda joined International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1963, ratifying the Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention in 1967, which was domesticated into national law through the establishment of the Minimum Wages Advisory Board and Wages Councils Act adopted in 1964.

The machinery only worked until 1984 when government of then reviewed the minimum wage to Shs6, 000 per month.

Bulging wage bill in African sub-continent has turned out to be the biggest nightmare for governments, as it keeps soaring high forcing them to borrow from foreign states to sustain it.

Recently the Ugandan government launched a new Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS), a decentralized salary system to eliminate inefficiency in public civil service.