21 Aug 2016

Member of Parliament for Nkange, Mr Edwin Batshu says at the just-ended Parliament session they passed 13 bills including the amended Trade Disputes bill .

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Timbi ward in Tutume recently, Mr Batshu, also Minister of Labour and Home Affairs said there had been concerns from the public that cases were taking long at the industrial courts.

They attributed that to the fact that the commissioner of labour and labour offices did not have the powers to resolve cases even some of which they could easily resolve.

Mr Batshu noted that with only nine industrial court judges, it led to backlog of cases resulting in people losing hope in the industrial courts system. 

He said the amendment had given the commissioner the powers to try and pass judgment on cases without having to refer them to court.

He said labour officers would also have the powers to pass a final verdict on a dispute in the absence of the defendant because it had been realised that often defendants never turn up even if notified on time by labour officers.

This, he said would help reduce the backlog of cases at the industrial courts and fast track some disputes which could be easily resolved at the labour offices.

On other issues, MP Batshu noted that records at his ministry indicates that of the 315 176 deaths registered, 171 451 are men while women account for 139 842. 

He said the national register showed that out of 1 571 259 registered people with identity documents, 805 257 were women while 766 002 were men.

He stated that figures had shown that despite being low in number, many deaths involved men as compared to women.

Commenting, residents said the numbers were high because in most cases when sick, men fail to visit health facilities . Ends