Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Uganda (Ratification: 2005)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Repetition

Previously, the Committee had requested the Government to take the necessary measures to amend several provisions of the Labour Unions Act and the Labour Disputes (Arbitration and Settlement) Act, both of 2006, in order to bring national legislation into conformity with the Convention. The Committee had noted with regret that the Government, while reiterating that the provisions of the abovementioned laws apply the principles of the Convention, provides no information to the Committee’s previous request. Accordingly, the Committee once again requests the Government to take the necessary steps to:

• – amend section 18 of the Labour Unions Act of 2006 (LUA), which stipulates that the process of registration of a labour union shall be within 90 days from the date of submission of an application, so as to shorten the time frame for registration;
• – amend section 23(1) of the LUA, which provides for the interdiction or suspension of trade union officers by the Registrar, so as to ensure that the Registrar may remove or suspend trade union officers only after full judicial proceedings have been held;
• – introduce more flexibility into section 31(1) of the LUA, either by admitting as candidates for trade union office persons who have previously been employed in the occupation concerned, or by exempting from the occupational requirement a reasonable proportion of the officers of an organization;
• – repeal section 33 of the LUA, which provides for regulation, by the Registrar, of an organization’s general annual meeting, so as to ensure the right of organizations to organize their administration as they so wish;
• – amend sections 5(1) and 5(3) of the Labour Disputes (Arbitration and Settlement) Act so that compulsory arbitration may only be imposed in the case of disputes in the public service involving public servants exercising authority in the name of the State, or in essential services in the strict sense of the term, namely those services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety, or health of the whole or part of the population, or at the request of the parties concerned. The Committee also notes that schedule 2 of the Labour Disputes (Arbitration and Settlement) Act lists those services deemed to be essential, and in which disputes may be referred by the Minister to the Industrial Court under section 34(5), thus rendering strikes therein illegal. Further noting that schedule 2 includes civil aviation services, the Committee considers that civil aviation services are not essential services in the strict sense of the term, i.e. services whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. The Committee accordingly requests the Government to take the necessary measures to amend schedule 2 of the Labour Disputes (Arbitration and Settlement) Act by removing civil aviation services from the list of essential services;
• – amend section 29(2) of the Labour Disputes (Arbitration and Settlement) Act so as to ensure that responsibility for declaring a strike illegal should not lie with the Government, but with an independent body that has the confidence of the parties involved. Further noting that under section 29(3) the offence of counselling or procuring an unlawful strike is punishable by a fine or imprisonment not exceeding one year, the Committee recalls that the application of disproportionate penal sanctions does not favour the development of harmonious and stable industrial relations: if measures of imprisonment are to be imposed at all, they should be justified by the seriousness of the offences committed (see 1994 General Survey on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraph 177). The Committee therefore requests the Government to ensure that strike sanctions are proportionate to the offence committed, and that the penalty of imprisonment is not imposed except where criminal or violent acts have been committed.

Finally, the Committee notes the comments submitted by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in a communication dated 31 July 2012 alleging in particular the Government’s interference in a trade union’s election, police preventing a union from meeting workers and storming a sit-in strike (metallurgy). The Committee requests the Government to provide its observations on these comments as well as on the 2010 ITUC allegations concerning the shooting of striking workers by the police resulting in two deaths and one striker injured.