Employees and Associations in Malawi

Get more information about Employees and Employees Association or Trade Unions in Malawi at Mywage.org/Malawi

Every employee, be it in the private sector or the civil service, has the right to join unions or various associations according to the Republic of Malawi’s Labour Relations Act.

Associations or unions play a major role in bringing employees together and helping to solve various work-related problems.

Malawi’s Labour Relations Act of 1996 aims to “promote sound labour relations through the protection and promotion of freedom of association, the encouragement of effective collective bargaining and the promotion of orderly and expedious dispute settlement, conducive to social justice and economic development”.

In Part II of the Act headlined “Freedom of association,” it says that every person shall have the right to freedom of association, which shall include the freedom to establish and join organisations of his or her own choice.

The Act further says that no person shall, in respect of any employee or any person seeking employment, require that he or she not be or not become a member of a trade union or require him or her to relinquish such membership.

An employer shall not dismiss or prejudice any person because of trade union membership or participation in the formation or the lawful activities of a trade union.

The organisations are also not supposed to discriminate in their constitution, rules or through their actions against any person on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic or social origin, national extraction, religion, political opinion, language, sex, marital status, family responsibilities, age, disability, property or birth.

The Act says makes provision for an office of the Registrar of Trade Unions and Employers organisations which shall be a public office.

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