DECENT WORK IN TANZANIA

Transcription

1 International Labour Office DECENT WORK IN TANZANIA What do the Decent Work Indicators tell us?

2 INTRODUCTION Work is central to people's lives, and yet many people work in conditions that are below internationally accepted standards. The Tanzania Decent Work Country Profile (ILO, 2010) was developed in 2009 through discussions with the Government of Tanzania (not covering Zanzibar), Tanzanian trade unions and employers and the National Bureau of Statistics. It provides an important milestone in terms of measuring progress to decent work using ILO decent work indicators, and clearly outlines the challenges remaining. This brief is intended as a more accessible version of the full document which can be found on the ILO website. This first country profile for Tanzania indicates that the country is making some progress on decent work, but much work remains to be done in terms of developing relevant statistical indicators to measure the multiple dimension of decent work and monitoring the informal economy, where more than 80% of the population is employed. The overall trends indicate that not enough employment opportunities are being created. They also reveal that in spite of the fact that real earnings in non-agricultural sectors are increasing, for most of the population, earnings are not adequate enough to pull them out of poverty. Most international and national policies put into place apply to the segment of the population that is employed in the formal sector, leaving a majority of the population vulnerable and unprotected by law in the informal sector. The Government of Tanzania has not yet ratified the following International Labour Conventions The Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) The Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) The Holidays with Pay Convention, 1936 (No. 52) The Holidays with Pay Convention (Revised) 1970, (No. 132) The Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156) The Termination of Employment Convention, 1982 (No. 158) The Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 (No. 121) The Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129)

3 The Medical Care and Sickness Benefits Convention, 1969 (No. 130) The Labour Administration Convention, 1978 (No. 150) The Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (No. 160) The Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No.155) The Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187) Hours of Work Convention (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1) Hours of Work (Commerce and Offices), 1930 (No. 30) 1 Employment opportunities The Tanzanian government remains committed to full employment, and a new Employment Bill is now at an advanced stage. However, little progress has been made in implementing the National Employment Plan, the National Employment Creation Program and the National Employment Policy. Employment opportunities in Tanzania have improved from the early 1990's to The employment to population ratio has grown slightly between 2000/01 and 2006, and unemployment fell marginally by 1.3 percentage points. Unemployment insurance has still not been put in place. While these statistics do not reveal much about the quality of jobs, it is encouraging that the

4 share of own-account workers and contributing family workers in total employment (often called 'vulnerable employment') fell marginally from 90.4% to 87.7%. Likewise, the share of workers who are considered to be in informal employment declined slightly, from 95.0% to 93.3%, meaning that a higher proportion of workers were able to access the security and protection that formal employment offers. The situation of the youth population, particularly those in urban areas, is critical, with over 24% unemployment. Together with some improvements in school enrolment rates, this suggests that more youth are remaining in school. The urban economy is unable to absorb new entrants to the labour market, including those who migrate from rural areas. Unemployment rates are consistently worse for women than for men, which might be explained by prevailing gender norms which limit women's access to employment. The effects of the current global crisis, though not yet showing in the statistics, could create additional challenges, particularly in the tourism industry and export-oriented sectors, and most workers don t benefit from unemployment insurance. 2 Adequate earnings and productive work Tanzania ratified the Minimum Wage Fixing Convention of 1970 (No. 131), and has adopted the Labour Institutions Act of 2004, which prescribes minimum wages on a sectoral basis and the Employment and Labour Relations Act, which provides the modes, formulas and timing of payment of wages. It has also established wage boards, which make recommendations on the cost of living, amongst other things. Average monthly incomes in the non-agricultural sector increased significantly, although the increase was higher for males than for females and higher in urban areas than in rural areas. The median monthly earning (low pay rate) rose by over 40%, and there was little change in the structure of earnings at the lower end of the spectrum. Despite high employment-to-population ratios, earnings are still inadequate for a substantial proportion of the Tanzanian population, and are insufficient to pull a large number of people out of poverty. The working poor remain a significant challenge, with over one third of workers still living in poverty 1. The situation is generally better for those predominantly in paid employment, and expanding access to paid employment thus represents an important policy challenge. 1. Based on the Basic Needs Poverty Line

5 3 Decent hours Tanzania has made little progress on this front in the last few years, although it has put into effect the Employment and Labour Relations Act of 2004, which stipulates a maximum of 45 hours per week, with a daily limit of 9 hours, and 28 days of paid leave per year. While many Tanzanians continue to work excessive hours (i.e. more than 48 hours per week), more and more Tanzanians lack an adequate volume of work, and therefore involuntarily work fewer hours than they want to. The proportion of workers with decent hours of work is low, and has fallen from 55.3% to 32.6% over the past years, with a 10% decrease in the last 6 years alone. The effective implementation of the legal framework for maximum hours of work that has been set up could redress this situation, but it applies to only a small percentage of the population that is employed in the formal sector. Increasing productivity and the returns to work would be an important policy element to explore further, particularly for the informal economy.

6 4 Combining work, family and personal life Tanzania has enacted the Employment and Labour Relations Act and the Labour Institutions Act of 2004, both of which provide for employees to balance their work, family and personal lives. These Acts provide for various forms of leave, including compassionate leave, maternity leave and benefits, paternity leave and a regulation of working hours. While there is an increasing trend towards implementation of the law, there is a lack of social care services to support the balance of work and family responsibilities.

7 There are large gender discrepancies with respect to combining work, family and personal life. While men spend 71 minutes more per day on economic work than women, they are also able to spend 22 more minutes on their own personal development (through learning and mass media), and 35 minutes more on social and cultural events. Women spend 140 minutes more per day on unpaid household work, and have much less time to spend on learning. Because women generally need their work hours to be more flexible in order to accommodate their household obligations, they are more inclined to take up jobs in the informal economy, and are thus less protected by the laws and institutions which can offer security and safety. 5 Work that should be abolished Tanzania ratified the Conventions on Minimum Age, 1973 (No. 138), Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999 (No. 182), Forced Labour, 1930 (No. 29) and the Abolition of Forced Labour, 1957 (No. 105). The Government adopted a new Employment and Labour Relations Act (2004) prohibiting both child and forced labour. It outlaws employment of children under age 14, forbids their employment in situations injurious to health, and repeals the earlier ordinance under which compulsory labour could be imposed for public purposes. The Anti-Trafficking of Persons Act (2008) covers trafficking for sexual and labour exploitation purposes. Implementation to eliminate child labour has been assisted by ILO since 1994, and one key achievement was the inclusion of a national indicator on child labour in the monitoring system of MKUKUTA and in national budget allocations for action plans. Yet challenges remain. To

8 determine trends, a module on child labour has been included in the ILFS 2000/01 and Every fourth child was considered to be in child labour (24.6%, 2006), representing a decrease from 30.6% ( ), yet still reflecting their role in supplementing household income in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Most were rural (29.3%) and male (27.4%). The target is to reach less than 10% by Rural girls are at high risk of becoming Customary law allows marriage at age 15, although the statutory law stipulates 18 as a minimum domestic servants and exposed to abuse. Another area of negative effect is the age at marriage. Child brides are rarely captured in child labour statistics. Domestic service is one among four of the worst forms of child labour, the others are commercial agriculture, mining and quarrying, and commercial sex work. Forced labour in Tanzania is legally prohibited, but there are no statistics available. The Committee of Experts has voiced concern about the application of the law in practice. 6 Stability and security of work While Tanzania has not ratified the Termination of Employment Convention, 1982 (No158), the Employment and Labour Relations Act of 2004 provides for employees to be protected against unfair employment, to be given notice of termination, and for severance pay. Data with regard to the indicators used to gauge the stability and security of work is limited, and in some cases available only for The general situation with respect to stability and security of work is not encouraging, with more males (58.4%) in precarious work than females (56.5%). In rural areas where the proportion of paid employees involved in precarious work is high (64.4%), both public and private employers are more likely to hire casual employees than in urban areas. For self-employed workers outside agriculture, in 2006, almost one quarter considered their work unreliable in terms of availability, down from 42.4% in 2000/01. The improvement, however, would most likely be attenuated if self-employed workers in agriculture were included. Some 93.3% of all employed persons were in informal employment in While this was a slight improvement over 2000/01, signalling some progress with respect to the creation of formal jobs, it still represents a very high proportion of the employed population who are not protected by the benefits and security of formal employment, including written contracts, employment protection, benefits, stability or access to trade unions.

9 7 Equal opportunity and treatment in employment Tanzania has done well in ratifying Conventions on equal opportunities and treatment in employment, including Conventions No. 100 (Equal Remunerations), and No. 111 (Discrimination in Occupations) and in adopting the Employment and Labour Relations Act (2004) and the National Employment Policy (2008). Strides made in the enabling legal framework contrast with the need to ensure far more enforcement of the law and policy implementation. Women still have less access to wage employment than men, they seldom make a career that leads them into a position of senior management, and they receive far lower earnings than men. Male domination continues for certain occupational groups considered 'good' (84% of administrators, managers and legislators in 2006), while women are overrepresented in elementary occupations (77% are in agriculture and fisheries). Women's low share of wage employment shows little or no movement since 2000/01 (just 30%). Those few women who do earn wages, earn 40% less than men (2006). This is nonetheless an improvement from the 50.5% lower earnings of women in 2000/01.

10 8 Safe work environment Tanzania has put into place a number of different legislations with regard to employment injury and labour inspection (used as proxy indicators for safe work), including the National Social Security Fund Act (1997), Workers Compensation Act (2008), the Public Service Compensation Scheme, the Labour Institutions Act (2004) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (2003). The reporting system used to collect data on injuries, both fatal and non-fatal, does not present a complete picture of the situation in Tanzania due to likely under-reporting, and the exclusion of agriculture. While there is a general upward trend in the reported number of occupational injuries, there are many fluctuations and variations across sectors, and it does not reflect the agricultural sector which employs the highest proportion of the working population, and is also known to have high injury rates. The number of labour inspectors has not increased past 70 in the last 4 years, and labour inspection density remains inadequate at 0.04 labour inspectors for every 10,000 employed people (or 0.33 labour

11 inspectors for every 10,000 paid employees). This low rate means that more opportunities exist for workplace injuries than should. The occupational health and safety legislation has been reviewed and an inspection agency has been established, but shortage of staff and funds hinder its efficient functioning. The confusion and possible conflict of interest in terms of the roles of the labour officers in the Ministry of Labour has now been resolved, with the functions of labour inspectors now separated from those of mediators and arbitrators. However, there is still need to recruit more labour inspectors, and raise awareness among workers and employers to adhere to legislation. 9 Social security Tanzania has ratified the Convention on Social Security Minimum Standards, 1952 (No.102) and has four long established social security schemes, yet the share of the population covered by the schemes is very low (3.6% of the economically active, or approximately 675,000 people in 2006).

12 The largest difference is between those in formal, and those in informal employment. Most Tanzanians work in the informal economy (93.3%, 2006) none of whom are reported as covered by social security, and still, many of those few in formal employment do not have coverage (36.8%). Coverage is particularly low for women (2%) and those living in rural areas (1.4%). A similar picture emerges for pensions, which cover just 4.2% (2007) of persons over 60 years of age, most of whom were Government workers. One structural reason for low pension coverage is that workers tend to take terminal benefits at the end of employment contracts because there is no unemployment insurance provision. Efforts are being made to increase social security expenditure as a proportion of GDP, and it has risen from 2.8% (2004) to 5.1% (2007). This is also mirrored in the increase in public health expenditure from 2.0% to 3.4% during the same period. Social insurance funds and Community Health Funds have been established in 29 out of 72 districts, but coverage is low: the former reaches just over 1 million of the nearly 40 million Tanzanians, and Community Health Funds reach fewer than 10% of households. There are clearly many challenges for Tanzania mainland in providing social protection for the projected rapid population increases until Opportunities to develop affordable social protection with wide coverage through a universal pension, child benefit schemes, and targeted assistance are being considered. 10 Social dialogue, workers and employers representation Tanzania has ratified the main instruments relevant to social dialogue and workers representation, namely the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, and the Tripartite Consultation

13 Convention (No. 144). Tanzanian legislation, through the Employment and Labour Relations Act (2004) provides for the right of employees to establish and join trade unions, and for employers to form employers' associations. While the number of members in trade unions affiliated to TUCTA (the main trade union federation) has grown by 34% in recent years, the increase in membership has not kept pace with the increase in paid employment. Females are underrepresented in trade unions, with only 1/3 the membership of males, but have a higher union density compared to males. The Tanzanian Union of Teachers (CWT) is the largest trade union in the country, with over 150,000 members, followed by the Union of Local Government Workers (TALGWU 54,820 members), the Unions of Industrial and Finance Institutions Workers (TUICO 51,820 members), and the Government and Health Workers Union (TUGHE 51,480 members). The Association of Tanzanian Employers (ATE) represents over 800 enterprises that, between them, employ roughly 14% of all paid employees.

14 11 Economic and social context of decent work Since the mid 1990s, Tanzania has implemented a wide range of reforms, and pursued macro-economic stability. These have been sustained over time along with political stability, and widely endorsed development strategies calling for high shared growth and improved livelihoods. GDP growth has improved steadily since 1991, although the structure of the economy remains predominantly agricultural. Three quarters of the working population work in agriculture which accounts for nearly half of GDP. The informal economy is estimated to constitute as much as 60% of GDP (WB, 2007) 2. Labour 2. Reference page 47

15 productivity has increased since 1991, but at a very slow rate. This is in spite of the share of employment in agriculture and industry shrinking in favor of expansion in service sector jobs. Yet social service provisions have improved, especially in areas such as primary education and health service provision. The number of children aged years not attending school has dropped from 21.2% in 2000 to 9.8% in The HIV pandemic is high, yet as in other East African countries, the situation has stabilized overall in recent years. Approximately 1.4 million Tanzanians have HIV, over 70% of whom are aged between years. Prevalence is highest among women in this age group (3.8%) as compared with men (2.8%). The challenge remains to provide better access to prevention and treatment services. NOTE: All materials and data for this brief have been sourced from the ILO Decent Work Country Profile Tanzania (mainland), ILO 2010, available on the ILO website integration/documents/publication/wcms_ pdf ILO Decent Work Measures and Indicators 3 Strategic Objectives Decent Work Indicators Legal Framework or Legislation pertaining to indicators Employment opportunities Adequate earnings and productive work Decent hours Combining work, family and personal life Work that should be Abolished Employment to population ratio (15-64) Unemployment rate Numbers of youth not in school or at work Informal employment rate Number of working poor Low pay rate Percent of population working excessive hours (more than 48 hours per week) Unusual hours worked Maternity protection Child Labour Government commitment to full employment Unemployment insurance Statutory minimum wage Maximum hours of work Paid annual leave Maternity leave Parental leave Child Labour Forced Labour

16 Stability and security of work Equal Opportunity and Treatment in Employment Safe work environment Social Security Social dialogue, workers, employers, representation Economic and social context for decent work Number and wages of casual/daily workers Occupational segregation by sex Female share of employment Occupational Injury Rate-Fatal Share of population (65yrs+) benefiting from social security Public social security expenditure Union density rate Enterprises belonging to employer association rate Collective bargaining coverage rate Percent of children not in school Percent of population who are HIV positive Labour productivity rate Income inequality Inflation rate Employment by branch of economic activity Adult literacy rate Labour share in GDP Termination of employment Equal opportunity and treatment Equal remuneration of men and women for work of equal value Employment injury benefits Labour inspection Pension Incapacity for work due to sickness/sick leave Incapacity for work due to invalidity Freedom of association and right to organise Collective bargaining right Tripartite consultations Labour administration 3. See: ILO, Measurement of decent work, Discussion paper for the Tripartite Meeting of Experts on the Measurement of Decent Work. TMEMDW/2008, Geneva Source: ILO compilation on the basis of the Discussion paper for the Tripartite Meeting of Experts on the Measurement of Decent Work (Geneva, 8-10 September 2008)

17 More information can be found at: ILO Country Office for the United Republic of Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda 76/27 & 105/27 Maktabe Street Dar es Salaam Tanzania (United Republic of) Tel: Fax: Website: International Labour Office Department of Statistics Website: On-line labour statistics: Policy Integration Department Website: