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Minister Mupfumira

Tatenda Charamba Herald Reporter
GOVERNMENT yesterday said informal workers are also entitled to social protection and must access it for the country to develop. Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira said this in a statement read on her behalf by her deputy Tapiwanashe Matangaidze at the African Regional Labour Administration Centre (ARLAC) tripartite workshop on options to extend social security coverage to the informal economy in Harare yesterday.

Minister Mupfumira said good working conditions were a right for every worker.

“As you are aware, social protection is a right for all workers. Informal workers have the same right to healthy and safe working conditions and must have access to social protection schemes,” said Minister Mupfumira.

“Informal workers and entrepreneurs are characterised by a high degree of vulnerability.

“They are not recognised under the law and therefore receive little or no legal or social protection and are unable to enforce contracts or have security of property rights,” she said.

Minister Mupfumira said provision of social protection to informal workers had many benefits.

“The role of social protection in tackling poverty, supporting economic growth and enhancing the effectiveness of growth strategies for poverty reduction has been substantially documented.

“It can help people adapt their skills to overcome the constraints that block their full participation in a changing economic and social environment, contributing to improved human capital development in both the short and longer term and in turn stimulating greater productive activity,” said Minister Mupfumira.

ARLAC information officer, Ms Mary Muchengeti said absence of social protection for workers in the informal sector was retrogressive.

“The lack of social protection is a major contributor to social exclusion and poverty,” said Ms Muchengeti.

In Africa, informal work accounts for almost 80 percent of non-agricultural employment, over 60 percent of urban employment and over 90 percent of new jobs over the past decades.