Tag Archives: Labour

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP |  The global unemployment rate inched down last year, the UN said Wednesday, warning though that jobs often failed to guarantee decent living, with some 700 million workers wallowing in poverty. Unemployment around the world fell last year to 5.0 percent — from 5.1 percent in …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Doctors in Zimbabwe have ended a more than month-long strike without winning a deal on higher salaries, their union said Thursday, adding the government had pledged to address their grievances. Hundreds of doctors in public hospitals walked out on December 1 demanding salaries in US …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa introduced its first minimum wage on Tuesday, with President Cyril Ramaphosa saying millions of workers would be better paid as he readies for a tricky election in May with the national economy struggling for growth. Trade unions have been split over whether …

Maputo, Mozambique | AFP | Mozambique’s government said on Monday that it had identified 30,000 “ghost employees” in its civil service who cost $250 million between 2015 and 2017. Some of those on the government payroll, which accounts for 55 percent of the poor African country’s state expenditure, did exist …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said Friday that a landmark minimum wage bill to bridge the country’s notorious inequality will become law from January 1 as he eyes elections due in 2019. The bill legislates that the lowest paid workers receive a minimum of …

One-fifth of the 25 million new jobs AfD Btargets for youth in Africa could come from off-grid solar COMMENT | Mugo Kibatiand and Gilles Vermot Desroches | Africa is on the verge of an unemployment crisis portending profound economic, political, and social ramifications. But the crisis can be averted, and …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | On the campaign trail for re-election in February, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari may have spoken too soon when he backed an initiative to hike his country’s minimum wage by a whopping two thirds. Buhari, who had been advised on the wage by a negotiating committee …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Thousands of Zimbabwe nurses who were sacked after they went on strike for better wages have been told to return to work by their union, in a bid to allow fresh negotiations with the government. Some 15,000 nurses fighting for better work conditions walked out …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Scores of Zimbabwe nurses on Friday protested in Harare’s central city park after the government dismissed them for striking over low salaries and poor working conditions. The nurses, who wore their white uniforms, demanded the government reverse its decision to fire the majority of the …

How declining global labour costs and increasing robotics are conspiring against manufacturing there COMMENT | OTAVIANO CANUTO | In emerging markets, manufacturing has historically been a source of productivity, growth, and jobs. Since the 1950s, industrialisation has kept economies in Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe on a steady glide toward …