By MOFFAT  CHAZINGWA –

STAKEHOLDERS should take advantage of the on-going debate on the retirement age to make amendments to unfavourable clauses in the labour policy, Ndola-based legal practitioner, Derrick Mulenga has said.
Mr Mulenga who is board member for the Labour Institute of Zambia (LIZ) said people should take advantage of the retirement debates provided for by Government to advocate for change in certain clauses viewed as bad provisions in the existing labour policy.
He said the current labour law, particularly the Pensions Act, comprised a number of deficiencies in design in terms of financing and administration.
The legal counsel said this in Kitwe when he gave a presentation on the legal aspect of the on-going retirement age policy reforms in the country at a public forum on the review of the retirement age in Zambia held at Hotel Edinburgh on Wednesday.
The public forum was organised by LIZ in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
Mr Mulenga said the law in its current state was characterised with a number of what he termed ‘miscellaneous provisions’ such as the early retirement age contained in the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) Act.
The early retirement age in the NAPSA Act states that a member shall qualify for early retirement if he or she is within five years before retirement age and has made contributions of 180 months.
“People have an opportunity now to revisit certain clauses that may be oppressive and don’t add value such as the early retirement in the NAPSA Act which says within five years of retirement, a person should have made contributions for 15 years to qualify and that if a person has served under 15 years, they should only get a refund,” Mr Mulenga said.
He said stakeholders should take advantage of the reforms to harmonise and consolidate laws such as the minimum wage and the Employment Act so that what is obtained in both shouldn’t be at variance.
Meanwhile, participants to the forum overwhelmingly opposed the proposed policy reforms to revise upwards the retirement age from the current 55 to 65 years.
The participants who included the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions and the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) in their submissions contended that Government should first address the shortcomings in the current system before thinking of changing the retirement age.
MUZ president Nkole Chishimba wondered why Government was proposing to adjust upward the retirement age when it had allegedly failed to effectively manage the pensions obligations for retirees under the current law.