PETITION BY UNZALARU MEMBERS

We, the undersigned members of the University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union (UNZALARU), are petitioning the REGISTRAR of the University of Zambia and the LABOUR COMMISSIONER to STOP recognizing the Leadership of the Union due to the following reasons:

• The leadership of the union has fundamentally breached the law by operating without a valid and ratified constitution. Section 11 of the Industrial and Labour Relations Act, (an Act that governs all Trade Unions), provides that “The Constitution of every trade union registered under this Act and every amended thereof shall be registered with the Commissioner and shall be accompanied by a duly certified copy of the resolution adopting the constitution or amendment thereof signed by the executive board.” Our Union has not DEPOSITED A RATIFIED constitution with the Labour Commissioner, this by implication means that the Union Executive are operating illegally.
• Section 21 of the Act provides for Annual reports of accounts of a trade union. The section provides that, “As soon as practicable, but not later than twelve months after the expiry of each financial year of the trade union, the executive officer of every trade union shall submit to the Commissioner a report concerning the financial affairs of the trade union during that financial year”. Our Union has never provided or submitted these audited financial reports either to the Labour Commissioner or to the General Membership thereby fundamentally breaching the law.
• Under Section 22 of the Act, deductions of membership fees is by agreement and is to be done annually. However, in our case we have not subjected the issue of membership subscription to an agreement through a General Conference. We have never held a Conference to determine the fees to be paid by members and hence collecting such fees is illegal because the law gives the Conference as the only body that can determine the fees and anything done outside the Conference is illegal.
• The leadership has breached many provisions of the law and to continue recognizing them will be tantamount to perpetuating an illegality.
• Management should with immediate effect STOP deducting subscription fees except medical fees from members’ salaries until the legally constituted leadership is ushered into office.

For the reasons given above we the undersigned do HEREBY PETITION the REGISTRAR of the UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA and the LABOUR COMMISSIONER to stop recognizing the leadership of UNZALARU until such a time when the issues raised above are attended to.