Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Ethiopia (Ratification: 1963)

Article 4 of the Convention (Measures to be taken to encourage and promote voluntary negotiation between employers or employers' organisations and workers' organisations with a view to regulating the terms and conditions of employment by means of collective agreements).

Further to its previous observation concerning, inter alia, the Government's policy on restrictions of wages increases and on the consultation and participation of trade unions in the establishment of that wages policy, the Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its report and in particular that, Ethiopia having now embarked on a new economic policy guided by a mixed economic system based on private, co-operative and state ownership, the Government is currently taking sweeping economic measures necessitating a review of the draft Labour Code, in light of the changes occurring in the country. The Committee further observes that it is intended that this legislation should be enacted soon, since the ad hoc committee mandated with examining that project has completed its work and submitted its opinion to the State Council.

The Committee takes due note of these developments and hopes that a new Labour Code, giving effect to the Convention and taking its previous comments and observations into account, will be enacted in the near future. It requests the Government to keep it informed of any development in this regard in its next report, and to provide the text of the new Labour Code as soon as it is adopted.

The Committee is addressing a request directly to the Government on another point.