REVIEW OF THE FACTORIES ACT CAP. 441 OF THE LAWS OF ZAMBIA

The current Factories Act Cap 441 of the laws of Zambia was enacted in 1967. The Act was intended to make further and better provision for the regulation of the conditions of employment in factories and other places as regards the safety, health and welfare of persons employed.  Further, it was intended to provide for the safety, examination and inspections of certain plant and machinery.  In 1991 Zambia embarked upon a policy to liberalize the economy. Since then, the economy has witnessed an influx of new investors who have established companies or expanded existing ones in various industries beyond the coverage of the Act. Consequently, there has been new technological changes in the world of work resulting in unknown occupational hazards.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security is mandated to enforce the Factories Act Cap 441 of the laws of Zambia.  The Factories Act was enacted in 1967 to make further and better provision for the regulation of the conditions of employment in factories and other places as regards the safety, health and welfare of persons employed.  Further, it was intended to provide for the safety, examination and inspections of certain plant and machinery in order to assure safety of employees in the Factories.  The Act has become inadequate as it does not address most of the issues in the workplaces. The Act is also limited in its scope of application in that it does not cover other important workplaces such as hospitals.

Zambia has ratified key ILO conventions on occupational safety and health namely: C155, C187 and C129. Therefore, Zambia has an obligation to domesticate the provisions of these conventions by revising the Factories Act cap 441 of the laws of Zambia.

The proposed bill intends to strengthen the law relating to health and safety in factories and other workplaces, it also intends to widen the scope of application to cover other workplaces. The bill proposes to strengthen the institutional frameworks so as to improve standards of Occupational Safety and Health.

The Act in its current state does not cover emerging occupational diseases and does not conform to International best practices and standards. There is urgent need to address emerging occupational hazards to conform to the ILO list of occupational diseases beyond the   restrictive list of industrial diseases specified in the second schedule to the Act.  The influx of new investments in the Zambian economy has resulted in   the establishment of workplaces that are not covered by the Act and have consequently brought about a rise in various negative occupational safety and health incidences.

The Act does not give power for inspectors to enforce the required punitive measures to compel would be offenders to comply with the Act.  

Arising from the above concerns it had been deemed necessary that the factories Act cap 441 of the laws of Zambia be repealed and replaced with the factories and workplaces Act. It is necessary to widen the scope of application on Act to extend it to workplaces.  Further it is desired to improve general administration of occupational safety and health country-wide and at an enterprise level. 

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security now invites comments and submissions from stakeholders on the proposed amendments and bill.