Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

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

1. Comments of Education International. The Committee takes note of the comments dated 31 August 2006 of Education International (EI) concerning specific violations of the Convention regarding teachers’ trade union rights in the public sector, including interference in trade union activities of the Ethiopian Teachers Association (ETA) by way of creation and control by the Government of a teachers’ trade union, and the harassment of teachers (dismissals, transfers, etc.) in connection with their union affiliation. While expressing its concern regarding these allegations, the Committee requests the Government to provide detailed observations on EI’s allegations, taking into account that the Government only referred in its report to the competence of labour inspectors to put before the courts cases of interference in trade union activities.

2. Article 4 of the Convention. Collective bargaining. The Committee notes that sub-article (6) of article 130 of the Labour Proclamation has been amended by Proclamation No. 494/2006 which provides that, if the negotiation to amend or replace a collective agreement is not finalized within three months from the expiry date of the collective agreement, the provisions of the collective agreement relating to wages and other benefits shall cease to be effective. The Committee considers, on the one hand, that the fact that the parties do not reach an agreement on salaries and other benefits should not result in the annulment of other negotiated clauses. On the other hand, the Committee considers that this provision does not take into account the reasons behind a failure to finalize a new agreement nor the eventual responsibility of one or the other party for this failure and could therefore in some cases not be conducive to promoting collective bargaining. The Committee requests the Government to take measures in order to amend the legislation and bring it into conformity with the Convention.

3. The Committee also takes note of the draft Regulation concerning employment relations established by religious or charity organizations of 2006. Article 4 of this draft provides that “employment relation established by religious or charity organisations with a person for administrative or charity work shall not be obliged to enter into collective bargain concerning salary increment, fringe benefits, bonus and similar other benefits which may incur financial expense upon the organisation”. The Committee recalls that collective bargaining should be promoted also in respect to these categories of workers in accordance with the Convention and that no restrictions on the scope of bargaining should be imposed on these categories of workers. The Committee requests the Government to amend this draft in order to bring it into conformity with the Convention.

The Committee will examine the other questions raised in its previous observation next year, during the regular reporting cycle.