Government backs down on labour laws

Swaziland this week heeded American threats of trade sanctions and scrapped a range of laws that “criminalised” trade union activity, news reports said on Wednesday. Swaziland’s Enterprise and Employment Minister Lufto Dlamini was quoted as saying that a new Industrial Relations Act eases restrictions on industrial action and “decriminalises” industrial relations. The new Act will also restrict government’s ability to block strikes “in the national interest” by forcing courts to issue banning orders. “The Act (now) proposes to allow employees who are not engaged in essential services to take part in peaceful protest actions to promote or defend the socio-economic interests of workers,” Dlamini said. The United States Embassy in Mbabane said it “welcomed” the new Act.