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LABOUR MINISTER THANKS UNIONS ON AGOA RETURN

30/04/2018 00:29:00 BY NTOMBI MHLONGO

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MBABANE – The country would not have regained its AGOA status had it not been for the social dialogue between government and unions.

As she bows out as the head of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Winnie Magagula is full of praise for the relationship that government developed with tripartite structures, especially unions.

To her, this is the reason the Workers Day should be celebrated tomorrow.
Interviewed last Friday, Magagula said the country would not have achieved anything had government not come together with unions and took seriously the importance of a social dialogue.

She said the social dialogue provided a perfect platform for workers, employers and the general public to discuss issues that affected them and applauded the Prime Minister, Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, for having ensured that it became a reality.

“The PM set up a commission in 2001 to implement the social dialogues. Even though it became dormant for years, I am happy that in the few years it has become active and together with the unions we were able to register organisations like TUCOSWA and FESWATU. These two are not in competition but represent different categories of workers. This helped in spreading the representation of workers,” she said.

Magagula said the era when the Kingdom of Eswatini was put under the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Special Paragraph at the International Labour Conference (ILC) after the country failed to meet certain requirements called for action to be taken, including working on strengthening the relationship between government and workers.
She said immediately after improving the relationship and eventually regaining the AGOA status in December last year, there has been visible improvement.

“We are now seeing job opportunities, especially in the textile industry, which is positive. Now that we have America on our side, other countries are seeing an opportunity to work with us. America is like the big brother so it has put us in good light,” she said.
Furthermore, she stated that the Kingdom of Eswatini being granted a seat in the ILO Governing Body is enough for workers to celebrate as it would bring a lot of opportunities.