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proposing the agenda. There was reluctance from some of the
management in letting the workers also propose their own agenda.
‘What kind of agenda can you expect to have from the workers
besides demands for more and more wages?''* retorted one mem-
ber of the management when asked to tell me why they did not
give chance to workers to participate in agenda formulation. The
management feared that giving the workers chance to propose the
agenda might lead to workers putting forth many items which
reflect their own interest. Another point raised by other members
of the management for not giving chance to the workers to also
propose the agenda was that they felt that the workers, on the
whole, were ignorant in many business and technical matters of
the Mill such that even if they were given the chance, they could
not have come out with viable agenda. The failure and reluctance
of the management to give an opportunity to workers to par-
ticipate in proposing the agenda does violate the spirit of the Cir-
cular which calls for equal share in participation between the
workers and the management whether in agenda formulation or in
the Workers' Council meetings themselves. It is only through
giving the workers chance to give their own proposals for
discussion in the meetings that they can feel that they do par-
ticipate effectively. The monopoly of agenda formulation by the
management may lead to the management to include only ‘safe’
issues and leave out the ‘hot’ issues which may be important.
Although there is an opportunity for raising questions by the
members in the meetings, yet the time for such, questions may be
limited for the important issues in the agenda. In this respect
therefore all the workers and the workers' representatives I in-
terviewed showed that they were not very happy with the way
the management monopolised the agenda formulation.

THE WORKERS' COUNCIL MEETINGS

Next to the discussion of the content and preparation of the
agenda for the Workers' Council meetings it is also important to
look at the way the meetings were conducted. Both meetings of
the Workers’ Council were, on the whole conducted fairly well.
Enough time was given for discussion and deliberation; and there
was no rush over the agenda. All the two meetings took about
four to five days each. It was the then General Manager, Mr.
Rwegasira, particularly who made the meetings run on smoothly.

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