Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the use and reform of labour law in Zambia. It follows how different sets of experts, including lawyers, company managers and government civil servants invoke statute, lingering norms based on past employment practices, and discourses about proper employment practices.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines labour law in Zambia. From the start of the 1990s, liberalization and privatization profoundly reshaped industrial relations in the country, weakening trade unions and giving rise to a broad increase in precarious employment practices, from outsourcing to short-term contracts. Since the late 2010s, facing a rise in popular anger about precarious employment practices, the Zambian government has tried to reassert its regulatory authority over the labour market through labour law reform, with the declared aims of ending casualization and improving protections for Zambian workers. This paper traces the debates involved this reform as well as the work of other actors involved in interpreting, using, and challenging labour law: lawyers, human resource managers, and civil servants. Each with their own professional expertise, these actors invoke the text of the law, lingering norms based on past employment practices, and discourses about proper employment practices. The paper examines how the law is brought to life on a regular basis, and how it matters both in the court of law and in the court of public opinion.