The Malawi Congress of Trade Union (MCTU) has accused government and employers in the country for failure to enforce and adhere to Safety Act which looks at the safety of employees in their work place.

This has been disclosed during a meeting organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Blantyre where the Minister of Labour, Vera Kantukule, engaged the representatives from the employers and employees associations and business captains to discuss on operationalization of Workers Compensation Fund which has been established.

The fund has been established to provide for compensation for injuries suffered or diseases contracted by workers in the course of their employment or for death resulting from such injuries or diseases.

Minister of Labour, Vera Kantukule said government and private companies will be contributing money so that the funds will be used as a compensation for the affected workers.

She said: “This is part of the ministry’s reform processes because currently it takes longer period of time for the affected people to get compensation because of the complicated processes that need to be followed and sometimes officers responsible for handling such cases are corrupt.”

Meanwhile the Minister has said the fund will be in operation soon and she further said through this year’s national budget government has pumped in K100 million for the operations of the fund.

In his remarks, Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU), vice president, Kelvin Chifunda, has accused government and employers in the country for failure to enforce and adhere to Safety Act in work places.

“Employees are facing many challenges when it comes to issues of safety at their work place due to among other issues negligence by the employers and corrupt practices by those handling compensation funds,” said Chifunga.

On the other hand, Employer’s Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAMA) executive director, George Khaki, welcomed the establishment of the Workers Compensation Fund saying it is long overdue.