Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Ethiopia (Ratification: 1963)

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Article 3. Right of workers’ organizations to organize their activities and formulate their programmes. In its previous comment the Committee had requested the Government to clarify a number of points concerning the nature of the conciliation and other collective labour dispute settlement procedures set forth in the Labour Proclamation No. 1156/2019 (LP) and the impact they may have on the exercise of the right to strike. The Government reports in this regard that: (i) the issues on which no agreement is reached during collective bargaining are submitted to the conciliator, and the outcome of the conciliation process becomes binding only when the parties agree to include it in the collective agreement; (ii) the right to strike is legally recognized in Ethiopia, but to create sustainable industrial peace and strengthen amicable dispute settlement methods, the LP requires that the dispute first be considered by the Labour Board or Court before taking strike action. Therefore, workers are forced to stay away from taking strike action only for the maximum time limits of 30 or 60 days while the case is pending in Labour Board or Court. At the end of this time limit, whether the case is concluded or not, workers have the right to take strike action; and (iii) strike action should be used as a last resort upon exhausting all other alternatives. In most cases strikes may cause significant damages to the employer, the workers and the nation at large. Therefore, the Government requests the Committee to reconsider the comment in view of the explanations provided.

The Committee notes the Government indication that, by the end of 30 or 60 days, workers can take strike action, whether the case is concluded or not. However, it also notes that pursuant to section 153.1 of the LP, decisions of labour relations boards have an immediate effect, and that section 161.2 provides that “it shall be unlawful to resist or unduly delay the execution of an order or a decision of a Board or Court disposing, in whole or in part, a labour dispute or to take or continue to strike or to lock-out in protest to such order or decision of the Board or Court; provided, however, that the strike or lock-out shall not be unlawful if initiated in order to ensure compliance with such order or decision”. Considering these provisions, the Committee notes that all collective labour disputes referred to in section 143.1 of the LP, except disputes concerning wages and benefits in non-essential services which are not determined by work rules or collective agreements (section 143.1(a)), are liable to compulsory settlement by labour relations boards/courts at the initiative of one of the parties only, and that as soon as the proceedings are launched unilaterally pursuant to section 143.3 of the LP, initiation of a strike action becomes unlawful pursuant to section 161. The Committee notes that this system significantly restricts the right to strike, making it almost impossible to have recourse to strike action in practice, in relation to disputes other than those of section 143.1(a). The Committee recalls again in this regard that: (i) the imposition of procedures to facilitate settlement before resorting to a strike should have the sole purpose of facilitating bargaining and should not be so complex or slow that a lawful strike becomes impossible in practice or loses its effectiveness; and (ii) except in situations concerning essential services in the strict sense of the term, acute national crisis and public servants exercising authority in the name of the State, recourse to arbitration (that is to a binding adjudication of the dispute) should be allowed only upon the request of both parties; as the systematic recourse to such procedure would be tantamount in practice to a general prohibition of strikes, which is incompatible with the Convention. Therefore, the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures to amend section 143.3 of the Labour Proclamation, with a view to ensuring that in case of failure of the conciliation process within 30 days, submission of the dispute to the Labour Relations Board will be possible only at the request of both parties, and that initiation of strike action is not adversely affected by any unilateral submissions. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on any steps taken in this respect.