This is TERRIBLE place to work...Can I get a job here?

I was exhausted.  It had been another long day of arguing with the Zairean "work inspector."  He was one of the endless parade of government officials that would visit Mission Garizim between September and January 1.  It was not easy in those days to get their "bonne fete" (New Year's gift). 

There has to be an infraction here someplace

We did our very best to pay all the mission workers as fairly and generously as we could.  I had long ago recognized that no matter what the workers were paid, the work inspector would always come up with SOME reason to find us in an infraction.  We doubted that the fines and taxes we paid ever made it to any government office or project.  The annual pattern of visits made it quite clear what it was all about.

We had to pay a tax because we weren't giving our workers a housing allowance.  "But they don't NEED a housing allowance!"  I insisted.  We provide complete housing for them for free.  That did not make a difference.  Even if their housing was provided, they still had to have a housing allowance.  That's what the law said.  He had a paper to "prove" it.  So that was an infraction, and an infraction demands a tax.

We argued extra long.  Our funds were getting very low.  There had been too many others like this inspector before him, and we knew there would be more in the coming days.  All day he had been haranguing us.  I had listened to it for so long that I had begun to wonder if we were not some low-life slime buckets trying to rip off the Africans after all.  We had done everything in the book wrong according to him.

Then as he walked back to the main road, his "bonne fete" (our tax) tucked tightly into his pocket, he turned to our staff member who was accompanying him.  "Do you think I could get a job here?" he asked.

Thank you, sir!  That question helped put it all in perspective for me. 

The devolution

During our first term I did not even know about Zaire's "Code du Travail" (Work Laws).  They must have existed, but they were not applied to missions.  We lived and hired workers happily.  However, as the country's economy deteriorated, officials became more and more desperate to try to get funds anywhere they could.  Immediate cash was the goal regardless of the long-term consequences.   I remember the first visit of the "Inspecteur du Travail" (Work Inspector) to Mission Garizim.  I about fainted when he listed all the requirements for hiring workers.   The long list was obviously intended for big corporations making big profits.  For small groups like ours it was death three times over.  It was really as if the worker became your child and your dependent.  You were expected to provide virtually everything for him.

Impossible to Fire?  Nearly!

The worst part was that the laws made it virtually impossible to fire anybody.  We still have workers on our work roll in the interior that we have not needed for ten years.  We keep them just because it is more expensive to fire them than it is to keep them working even if they did nothing.  Their jobs are dead-end job for them.  We will never promote them because we don't really need them.  If, however, we are out of money and cannot continue, we could let them go then, according to the law.  But of course we would pay even more dearly to do that, since other fines would apply then.

Some missions hired a special accounting agency and paid them a considerable monthly fee to do nothing but try to keep them in the good graces of the "code du travail".  In the end they, too, were levied devastating fines and ended up leaving the country.

Consequences of Restrictive Work Laws

As a result of all the upheavals Zaire (now Congo) went through, the streets have filled with homeless street children.  We have developed a wonderful ministry to street children in Kinshasa.  But we cannot start a home for them, because we would have to hire workers.  To hire workers, we'd have to follow the "Code du Travail", which is still in place.  I hate it every time I have to tell our staff no, sorry, we simply cannot cope with the "Code du Travail."  Even if it means that we cannot do some of the things we would dearly like to do.  Even if it means that street kids still sleep on the street.  It's just not feasible as long as that work code is still in place, or at least, as long as it is applied to mission agencies and other non-profit organizations.

Our experience struggling with the work code in Zaire is how I came to understand how damaging restrictive work laws can be.  We are not trying to make a profit; we are just trying to support the ministries to which we commit.  We cannot support them if we follow the present work laws, so we have to walk away from opportunities to help some of the most desperate.  I feel overwhelmingly sad every time I think about it, and yet I know it is the right decision.  Hopefully one day Congo will change the work laws it inherited from the Mobutu era and set up new, more flexible laws that protect workers while encouraging employers.  Then we and others will be able to do much more to help the needy.