Unions plan one-day nationwide strike

The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) on Monday threatened to hold a nationwide one-day strike next week if the government did not signal its willingness to amend controversial labour laws, news reports said. “Government must show its readiness to rewrite the Industrial Relations Act to make it compliant with international norms on workers’ rights, or economic activity in Swaziland stops on Monday,” the SFTU’s secretary-general Jan Sithole was quoted as saying. King Mswati signed a controversial new labour law in June in a bid to pre-empt punitive action by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The law, aimed at stemming an ILO threat to seek sanctions against the small, landlocked kingdom unless it liberalised its labour laws, is unlikely to win ILO acceptance as royal councillors attached a clause holding workers responsible for any losses incurred during a strike. Another amendment holds workers financially responsible for any strike-related property damage.