Protest over labour law

Swaziland’s trade unions plan to protest a new labour law which they say would restrict the right to strike and could win the backing of the United States government, union activists told IRIN. Jan Sithole, the general-secretary of Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) said the Industrial Relations Act, which the government of King Mswati intends to pass on Friday, withdraws trade unions’ right to protest on socio-economic issues and “is a direct attack on the workers’ right to freedom of association and curtails the workers’ right to engage in protest action on issues affecting them.” He added: “Some clauses in the Act give employers the right to claim civil damages from trade unions arising out of strike action, whether the action was legal or not.” The US embassy earlier this month threatened that Washington would cancel Swaziland’s trade benefits if it did not scrap the clauses in the Act that criminalised trade union activity. Swaziland, under the US Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), imports and exports goods to and from the US duty-free. Lutfo Dlamini, Swaziland’s labour and enterprise minister, last week reportedly said the government would ease the clauses that restrict industrial action. “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. Sithole, however, said the government had not amended the restrictive clauses, and seemed prepared to pass the Act as it stands. He warned that the government had until Friday to remove the clauses. “We will encourage the withdrawal of GSP benefits if the law is passed with these clauses,” said Sithole, who added that the SFTU had the backing of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which has also objected to the proposed new law.