The Ministry of Labour and Public Services will amend the Labour Law to extend working hours for civil servants from 40 to 48 hours per week.

This was revealed Monday by the Minister of Public Service, Prof. Manasseh Nshuti during a seminar organised by his ministry to review their achievements in the past year and plan for the future. The event took lace at Hotel Novotel, Umubano in Kigali.

Prof. Nshuti said that if the new law was approved by the Cabinet, it would also put in place a minimum wage that would protect employees from exploitation by their employers. The amendment is expected to be completed in February.

"The move is intended to step up strength and competition among all employees to ensure that the country attains all its development goals,” said the Minister.

He continued that the new law will enable the country’s labour force to work hard towards achieving national development programmes aimed at reducing poverty.   

"It requires all employees to be patriotic, nationalists and think about the future to ensure that the country develops at the desirable speed,” he added, pointing out that people could not develop unless they worked hard to compete with those ahead of them. "With the extension of the working hours, we believe we will have a more competitive ground that would revamp our economy,” he said.

He noted that the extension of the working hours would not affect salaries and urged people to sacrifice for the future. The minister continued that this year his ministry plans to put more emphasis on capacity building mechanisms to unravel the labour challenges in the country.

"The capacity building will be in line with the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS),” Nshuti said.

He added that the ministry would put more effort in employment promotion to ensure that the masses get the skills required to create their jobs through entrepreneurial skills development.

"This is aimed at reducing the level of unemployment and poverty in the country,” he explained. He said that they would focus on internship development and to help university students get on-job-training skills, which will be conducted in and outside the country.

The move is intended to equip university graduates with the necessary skills in their respective disciplines which would help in increasing their capacity. stitutions.

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