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ASIST Bulletin no. 11, July 2000 News Workshop on labour policies and practices By Ida Chimedza, ASIST Harare This workshop was held in Windhoek on 15 _16 February 2000. It is the second in a series of national workshops on labour policies and practices. The first workshop was held in Zambia in November 1999. Forty-five participants who included government officials, contractors, social security authorities and ILO representatives attended it. The objective of the workshop was to provide a forum within which the role players in the Namibian labour-based sector could discuss the challenges posed in the area of labour policies and practices with a view, ultimately, of reaching a consensus on how these challenges should be addressed. In Namibia, labour-based methods have been in use since 1991. In 1995, the ILO produced a report (later published as a guide in 1995), which discussed the application of labour standards. The guide also made several suggestions towards the improvement of labour standards within the labour-based roads sector. In 1999, the White Paper on Labour-based Works Policy was approved by Parliament. It aims to guide the various economic sectors to meaningfully use the available human resources through labour-based works. The main issues discussed during the workshop were on labour standards, social protection, and social dialogue. The participants identified the following problem areas under each topic. Labour standards The discussions and recommendations in this group covered the following issues: severance pay; the payment of overtime; public holidays and Sundays; payment of sick leave; annual leave; occupational health and safety; collective agreements; and meal breaks. Social Protection This group focused on the issues related to the provision of social security coverage for labour-based workers. The main issues under this were on the: registrations under the Social Security Commission (SSC); registration fee; contributions to Social Security; access to Social Security; receiving benefits from the SSC; the coverage of adult family members assisting the employee to perform tasks. Social dialogue The concerns of the group were centered on communication problems between various players in labour-based works including, client and contractor, and contractor and labour-based workers. They also discussed affirmative actions for female contractors and people with disabilities. Lastly, the group recommended that the labour-based workers form organised groups to enable collective bargaining. A full report on the workshop is available from the ASIST library.
Impact of ASIST Bulletins By Peter Bentall, Consultant, UK The Bulletin, a variety package of useful information mostly contributed by practitioners in the field, and thankfully not all male engineers. Whether it has been practical designs for tools and equipment; advice on giving training presentations; discussion of contracting issues; publications reviews; training course details, or, most usefully, details of the projects ongoing in the various countries, there is nothing that I have been inclined to ignore as being of no interest. As a private consultant I am often asked ` if I know someone who can...?' and the information of who is doing what, and where, has often helped to identify people who may be available for the next project. From the first issue, highlighting Roads 2000 in Kenya, the traditional `rural roads' emphasis has developed into other areas such as urban works, rural transport, gender considerations, accessibility planning, and environmental issues—to mention a few. Each Bulletin has a theme and a useful centre-fold, which in themselves form a valuable reference collection, and for those who also receive the documented Proceedings of the Regional Seminars, it would be impossible to say that practitioners lack any resources for doing their jobs and promoting the technology. Only one topic I think that has so far not received sufficient attention is `research' _ into construction standards; cost comparisons; contractors profitability; impacts on local communities; economic impacts and so on. We claim so many benefits of labour based construction technology; we are hard pressed to prove them. So is there anything to criticise? If all this information and collated experience of labour-based works resides within ASIST and is expounded in the Bulletin, how is it that many projects still seem to be trying to reinvent the wheel? Are the project personnel—local and/or expatriate—making the best use of this wealth of valuable material? My personal view is that they are not. Bulletin 6 for example introduced the flywheel-crushing machine and we've seen it demonstrated at the Regional Seminar—but how many projects operate them? Some Advisers still seem unaware of their existence. Why also are we still having so much trouble with tractor hitches when the problem has been discussed endlessly? The value of good hand tools has been continuously emphasised but in which country has a local tool making industry been developed? The fault lies with us—the end users. We are not communicating; interacting; networking (?) Whatever happened to the Letters page in Bulletins (not seen since No. 2). So many good ideas from various sites I visit never get shared. Does the Bulletin reach the right people—not just us `the believers' but also the decision-makers—project formulators—the donors and funders? Do we need an ASIST 'Lovebug' to swamp the internet? 'new century'—`new guard'—`new communications technology'- time for me to `bow out?'
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