The Unpaid Workers of Uganda

 

By Arthur Mwenkanya Katabalwa

 

With the Ugandan youth unemployment rate hovering at 62%, a huge tragedy is unfolding in Uganda. Many of us who wake up everyday to go and work are aware of it; That many of our number are actually not being paid for their work. This, to many is a form of modern day slavery that has come to be accepted as norm.

 

The jobs market in Uganda is volatile. Where we have Universities spewing out graduates by the thousands every year yet there isn't the capacity to accommodate these new workers. The problem is further compounded by the fact that there is no government agency to see to it that those jobs that are created are fairly distributed. So for the new jobseeker on the market, the task is almost daunting to find a job. If one doesn't know of someone who knows of a job opening somewhere, it becomes incredibly difficult.

Job Seekers in Uganda (Monitor Photo)

 

Samalie (not real names) from Nansana graduated with a BA in Business administration from Makerere University in 2011. To this day her only occupation has been her attendance at Watoto Church (former KPC) everyday to mingle with others like her. At 26, she was almost desperate; "I looked for work in every company you can think of" she told me "and many times I was told that I didn't have the experience for the job that I was applying for". It didn't help that she has been in boarding school all her life so where she could have got the experience no one knows. For a long time she worked at a logistics company near Kampala. for seven months, despite the fact that the company was in business, she received no pay. "Management belittled us. especially those of us who were fresh from school, thinking that we didn't need the money." But hers is a success story because three weeks ago, she got a job as a bank cashier at one of the leading commercial banks.

 

Mark Tayebwa is a boda boda man I regulary use to take me back home in the evening. He also graduated from Makerere University in Business  Administration in 2008. After years trying to hustle, working for nearly no pay, he decided to buy a moped which he now uses to ferry people around Kampala, sometimes for less than a dollar. "I was being employed and after months not being paid, I decided to get a loan and buy this boda boda. Now I can say I have an income." Mark has got a wife who is a teacher at one of the primary schools in Mbarara. She is also a graduate from University. Four of my boda boda men at my local boda boda stage are University graduates who got tired of working for no pay.

 

The problem is so ingrained that many employers now act with impunity. I have heard of companies where workers have been sent emails from management saying that as the whole work force had not done a thing the previous month, they would not be paid. The complaint from the workers was that they had actually added value to the company but it hadn't been appreciated. Others complained of managers going abroad just before pay day. When they came back in the middle of the following month nothing was heard of their pay.

 

This problem isn't isolated in the small to medium companies. Even larger companies like insurance firms are in on this dirty game. Many people are employed on a commission basis on top of a paltry wage. Even after all the targets are met, the calculations for the commission can take months.

 

One manager who contacted me decided to fight back however. "My company is small and I have to employ people on a non paid internship basis. If they prove themselves after six months, then I will employ them" I asked him whether he met any costs for the interns and he said he didn't. But I found in interesting that even after the interns contributed to the growth of the company, they saw non of their returns in anyway. His argument? "Some of these new recruits have no workplace experience, they are lazy and many cant even spell!"

 

James Kabigumira a business consultant in Mbarara said that many companies are struggling as well as there is a culture of non payment for goods supplied which impacted on wages and thus impacted on the economy as well. "What needs to be realised is that workers not paid means that there is no money pumped into the economy. There is no spending power in certain parts of society. Therefore these people don't buy goods and services and the providers of these goods and services have nothing on their order books which impacts on manufacturers. We therefore have a self perpetuating situation where there is no money because no one is paying the other is the supply chain."

 

In a study done by Action Aid International Uganda titled "Lost Opportunity", it was noted that the high unemployment rate among the youth poses a serious threat to the well-being of society. And until something is done higher up in the government, many people will wake up tomorrow in Uganda, get dressed smartly, take their kids to school and arrive on time at work fully well knowing that they will not be paid at the end of this month, much the same as several previous ones and many more in the future.