Sect. 63.  Essential Services.

1. No employee or employer engaged in an essential service shall take action by way of strike or lockout.
2. Where a dispute in an essential service is unresolved after completion of conciliation under section 56 and any non-binding proceedings to which the parties have referred the dispute under sections 57 and 58, any party to the dispute or the Minister may refer the dispute to the Tribunal for determination.

If continuation of a strike or lockout is likely to result in a real and present danger to the life, health or personal safety of the whole or part of the population, the Minister may refer to the dispute to the Tribunal which shall, if it finds that such a threat exists, enjoin such strike or lockout and determine the dispute.

Sect. 3. Application of the Act

essential service means any service, whether rendered by the Government or any other body or person, the interruption of which is likely to endanger the life, health or personal safety of the whole or part of the population, and includes the prison and fire services.

[ILO drafted provision for a Member country]

Sect. 97. Reference to compulsory arbitration.

(1) If the labour officer, after giving the parties a reasonable opportunity of making representations, and after taking into account the consequences likely to flow from collective job action in the essential service concerned unless there is referral forthwith to compulsory arbitration, considers that compulsory arbitration is appropriate to resolve the dispute, he or she shall order the dispute to be referred to compulsory arbitration.

(2) In ordering a dispute to compulsory arbitration in terms of subsection (1), the labour officer shall state the issues which, in his or her opinion, must be arbitrated.

(3) Where a dispute concerns the interpretation or application of a collective bargaining agreement which appropriately makes provision for arbitration, the labour officer shall refer such disputes to arbitration as provided for in the collective bargaining agreement.

Sect. 98. Effect of reference to compulsory arbitration.

(1) Where a labour officer has referred a dispute to compulsory arbitration, no employee, workers' committee, trade union, employer or employers' organization shall engage in collective job action in respect of the dispute.

(2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence.

Sect. 99. Procedure relating to compulsory arbitration.

(1) When a labour officer orders a dispute to be referred to compulsory arbitration in terms of subsection (1) of section [...] he or she shall forthwith communicate such order to the Minister.

(2) Within seven days of receiving the order referred to in subsection (1), the Minister shall refer the dispute to the Tribunal for determination:

Provided that if the parties so request, the Minister may appoint an independent mediator to mediate between the parties to the dispute for the purpose of resolving it.

(3) The Tribunal or the independent mediator, as the case may be, shall communicate forthwith any decision or determination made in the dispute to the parties and to the Minister.

[ILO, 1993, Proposals for a Draft Labour Act (Zimbabwe)]

Sect. 82. 11. The President of the Republic may, where she or he considers that the strike or lock-out is liable to be prejudicial to public order or the general interest, decide to refer the dispute to the arbitration board composed of a magistrate and two arbitrators in accordance with the procedure, time-limits and effects envisaged in the present Title.

This possibility is available in the following circumstances:

(1) where the strike affects an essential service the interruption of which is liable to endanger the life, health or safety of the whole or part of the population;

(2) in the event of an acute national crisis.

[Côte d'Ivoire, Labour Code, 1995]