“We have a lot of women working on a short-term basis in restaurants and especially in food processing. Many are without permanent jobs, are paid very little, and have much less protection. Managers say, ‘I pay her at the end of the day and that’s an end to the matter’.

These women casual workers have no medical provision, sick pay or maternity leave. Managers say, ‘Once you deliver the baby, come back after a week or you are fired’. How can you give birth and go back to work after just a week? Or perhaps the woman was permanent but is now told to reapply for her job, and then she waits and waits, and may not be taken on again. Or, if she is taken back, she has to start afresh and forfeit her severance pay, etc. Many women at Suncrest Creameries in Blantyre had to reapply for their jobs in this way.

At Blantyre Sports Club, women who got pregnant and could not fit into their uniforms were told, ‘You must buy a new uniform, or don’t come to work until after you give birth’. This meant, of course, that they lost pay which is very bad when you are about to have a baby.

Women need a lot of sensitisation before they will join the union. They tend to say, ‘If I get involved in trouble, who is going to feed my children?’ They think of their multiple roles. Our union holds enterprise-level meetings. We show the workers the law, and explain we are there to help. Where we have visited workplaces, we do see an impact, even at small restaurants of only 20-25 people. And once women become union members, I find they tend to be more active than men. The pity is that, when it comes to elections, they tend to put men in high positions, leaving out their fellow women.

Sometimes, though, we have to go back to the women workers several times, explaining what a union is and how it can empower you, and the legal rights you have to be a union member. But many are victimised. Employers are not scared. Court cases take a long time, 2-3 years.

But we tell workers not to wait. We advise them, ‘When you see even small signs of victimisation, come to the union immediately. Any small statement that is not union-friendly, or any bit of sexual harassment may seem minor now, but it could become a big issue. We will take it up with the employer’. One lady was suspended when she became pregnant with the child of her boss; if only she had come when the harassment started.

There is little solidarity from men at the workplace. Even some men shopstewards say that sexual harassment is a ‘personal issue’ instead of helping the women. But we are planning to have more gender training with the men. Where men have been sensitised, we have seen them help to get maternity leave. But others say, ‘It is a woman’s issue’ and it gets dropped off the union agenda.

At Blantyre Sports Club, the women workers waited for feedback from the shopstewards but they got none. It is because there was no woman shopsteward. We tell the women, ‘If you don’t become a shopsteward, you cannot be sure your issues will be taken up. Please participate. Let your voice be heard. Otherwise you won’t be taken seriously. You will be nowhere to explain your side of the story’.

Men tend to hold meetings at the end of the working day when we women rush off to look after our children. We ask the men to move the meetings, for example to lunchtime when everyone can be there. This has been successful in involving more women. We say to the women, ‘You can only be involved when you make yourselves available for the meetings. Otherwise you won’t know how your issues can be taken up.’ We try to encourage men to tell women about coming to meetings as they are the first to lose out.”

Sexual Harassment: Why make a ‘fuss’?

“A woman worker at a dairy company in Malawi was suspended because she refused to let a manager touch her breasts. It was the manager’s habit to touch the breasts and behinds of the women workers as he did his routine inspection of the production area each morning. On this particular day, this fearless woman shouted at the manager that she wasn’t pleased with what he was doing. That afternoon, she was called to the manager’s office and told that what he did was not an unusual thing and asked why she was making a fuss. She was suspended and sent home.

Two days’ later, the woman visited the union office. She wasn’t a union member, but the official took the issue up and visited the manager. At first he was uncompromising but he was told of the potential consequences and eventually he agreed to take the woman back. She was very grateful to the union and has now joined us. In fact, she is at the forefront of encouraging other women to join.”

A PPE case

“I was attending a social dialogue workshop at the Sun ‘n Sand Holiday Resort on the shores of Lake Malawi, when I noticed a Public Attendant cleaning toilets with her bare hands. She had neither protective gloves nor disinfectant.

We met again later that evening. I explained it was the workers’ right to have protective wear in such places, to protect her health. But she was scared of speaking to her supervisor for fear of losing her job. So I directed her to the shopsteward. She is now a union member and has enticed many fellow workers in her department to join.”

Interviewed by Celia Mather, Lusaka, 2 July 2006