Evaluating the Contributions of Trade Unions on Employee Welfare at Levy Mwanawasa Medical University.

Trade unions play a vital role in promoting employee welfare through collective bargaining, employee representation, and advocacy for improved employment conditions. Despite their significance, limited empirical evidence exists on their contribution to employee welfare within Zambia's public higher learning institutions. This study evaluated the contribution of trade unions to employee welfare at Levy Mwanawasa Medical University (LMMU), with specific emphasis on their role in improving employees' working conditions and promoting workplace benefits. The study employed a case study research design within a convergent mixed-methods framework. The target population comprised 540 academic and non-academic employees from the Lusaka and Kabwe campuses, from which a sample of 230 respondents was determined using the Yamane formula. Quantitative data were collected through structured questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), while qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. The findings revealed that 84.8% of respondents agreed that trade unions had contributed to improving employees' working conditions by promoting safer and fairer workplaces. Additionally, 83.9% acknowledged that trade unions played an important role in negotiating workplace benefits, including salaries, allowances, and employee welfare support, while 82.6% expressed satisfaction with the services provided by the trade union. The study concludes that trade unions are important institutional partners in enhancing employee welfare at LMMU through improvements in working conditions and workplace benefits. It recommends strengthening collaboration between university management and trade unions, improving communication during collective bargaining processes, and enhancing member engagement to ensure that negotiated benefits are effectively implemented and equitably experienced by all employees.

Trade unions, employee welfare, working conditions, workplace benefits

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