The Chairperson of the National Organization of Trade Unions, Wilson Owere has appealed to government to ensure that it puts in place pension reforms that cover the informal sector.

Wilson Owere

While speaking to the media in Kampala, Owere said that there are many Ugandans that are not covered by the social security protection and pension just because Uganda’s social security scheme and pension reforms only address workers of the formal sector.

Owere says workers of the informal sector are ignored and left to die like paupers with no social security and pensions to their rescue.

He says this should not be so and instead the government should provide social security to people in this sector since they contribute to the government’s income through taxation and it is thus the duty of government to provide social security to Ugandans in the informal sector.

Uganda’s social security is governed by a number of legislations which include the 1995 Constitution of Uganda, the Pensions Act which provides for the pensions of public servants, the National Social Security Fund Act which provides for the social security of employees of the formal private sector, the Police Act and the Local Government’s Act among others.

However these laws are fragmented and are not comprehensive enough to address the social security needs of all Ugandans as none of the above laws address the issue of the social security of the informal sector.

By Tiberindwa Zakaria, Ultimate Media