By Burnett Munthali
President Lazarus Chakwera on Monday, May 1 2023 addressed the nation that Malawi must strive to be a healthy nation.
The President made his remarks in response to the Malawi Congress of Trade Union President when he explained that life was hard for many workers as their salaries could not suffice for the whole month.
The MCTU President asked government to consider revising salaries for government employees.
This article is endeavoring to look at what the President meant by saying that Malawi must strive to be a healthy nation and be self reliant.
Active People, Healthy Nation is a national initiative to help people become more physically active. Increased physical activity can improve health, quality of life, and reduce health care costs.
A healthy population is one of the nation’s most important assets. It is valuable in its own right and also creates value for society. It allows people to participate in family life, the community and the workplace.
The President also spoke about self reliance.Self-reliance is the ability to do things and make decisions by yourself, without needing other people to help you.
Of course, employees should be self reliant. Self-reliance is important because getting things done on our own makes us more effective, increases positive feelings about ourselves, and increases the likelihood that we will work harder in the future, especially in challenging circumstances. But how do employees connect salary increment and being self reliant? The two don’t seem to match well here.
As said earlier, the underpayment of employees impacts the morale of the workforce. Which then leads to a decline in employees’ performances. When employees feel undervalued and are demotivated to work, their performances are affected, and productivity declines quickly.
Low government wages in developing countries result in a decline of public sector efficiency and productivity and create incentives and opportunities for corruption and misuse of public resources.
There are many effects of a low paying job. Employees lose the focus to finish their tasks and projects while also losing the drive to challenge themselves to be better in their line of work. They will feel disengaged with the organization due to a lack of connection in the workforce which could potentially push them to find new employment elsewhere.
And of course, there are negative effects of low job satisfaction. Not only does job dissatisfaction decrease work performance and morale, it can also negatively impact your bottom line.
When employees are not engaged in their work, they are less likely to have the motivation to be productive and carry out quality services. That’s the case in government.
Civil servants are poorly paid and nobody seems to care about their plea.
A healthy nation, self reliance and talking and acting is not the answer to cocoon servants low package.
Probably, such ideas should not have been said by the President on Labour Day, pathways on different day with a different theme would have been appropriate.