Abstract
Recent pay reform efforts in Zambia have sought to generate more competitive wages and benefits for workers in the public sector. However, these efforts have been characterised by inconsistent policy decisions during wage negotiations. Such decisions produce distortions in the pay structure that result in industrial unrest from unions in the public sector. Previous literature has not examined how public sector unions influence these outcomes in Zambia. This article examines factors that affect public sector unions’ influence in Zambia. Seven factors were identified after analysing the 2013 wage negotiations and subsequent nurses’ strikes at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) as an extended case study. Most variables decreased union influence. Outcomes that favour unions were found to be largely the result of the government’s political will. Therefore, political will was determined to be the strongest variable influencing outcomes, whether to the benefit or detriment of unions and their members.
Recommended Citation
Stawasz, Andrew and Talbot, Thaddeus
(2013)
"The Power of Politics for Zambia’s Public Sector Unions: A Case Study of the 2013 Nursing Strikes,"
Zambia Social Science Journal: Vol. 4:
No.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/zssj/vol4/iss2/5