BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Minister of Labour and Social Security Phila Buthelezi is in Mombasa, Kenya for a labour administration meeting.
The meeting attended by Buthelezi is formally known as the 50th Governing Council meeting of the African Regional Labour Administration Centre (ARLAC). Eswatini is a member of ARLAC, a Centre that was jointly formed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1974.
It was formed for the development of Labour Administration and Policy issues among Anglophone (English speaking) African member countries. The centre is an intergovernmental organisation for English speaking African countries.
The mandate of ARLAC is to strengthen Labour Administration systems in its member countries through training, research, consultancy, advisory as well as benchmarking services much in line with ILO Convention No. 150 (1978) on Labour Administration. This Convention requires that the Staff of the Labour administration systems in ILO Member States should be composed of persons who are suitably qualified for the activities to which they are assigned and should have access to trainings as necessary for such activities.
The Ministry therefore sends its Staff together with representatives of the social partners to this Centre for trainings and workshops on various topics of Labour law. The Ministers of Labour and Employment from all ARLAC Member countries meet annually in February of each year.
The meeting is to review the activities of the Centre, including reviewing the curriculum of trainings provided by the centre, consider and approve the budget of the Centre, performance of the Centre and other governance issues in order to ensure that the Centre effectively delivers on its mandate of capacitating the Staff of Labour or Manpower Ministries. The Minister is accompanied by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Principal Secretary (PS) Makhosini Mndawe and Commissioner of Labour Mthunzi Shabangu.
