Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Ethiopia (Ratification: 1963)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report in relation to the Committee's comments concerning Labour Proclamation No. 42/1993.

1. The Committee notes from the Government's report that persons such as employees of state administration, judges, prosecutors and others are governed by special laws (section 3(2)(e)).

The Committee would remind the Government that the Convention provides that workers, without distinction whatsoever, shall have the right to establish and join organizations of their own choosing (Article 2 of the Convention), and that only the armed forces and the police can be excluded from this right (Article 9(1)). The Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report the names and provide copies of the special laws that govern the persons excluded by section 3(2)(e) of the Proclamation from its scope of application.

2. In its previous direct request, the Committee had considered that in view of the prohibition on the right to strike for workers of undertakings which rendered essential services (section 157(3)), the definition of essential services contained in section 136(2) was too broad and should notably not include air transport and railway services, urban and inter-urban bus services and filling stations, banks and postal and telecommunications services (section 136(2)(a), (d), (f) and (h)). The Committee notes the Government's statement that, given the fact that there are only single enterprises which render services in the above sectors, stoppage of such services would disrupt and endanger the normal lives of the public. Consequently, it would be difficult to lift the restrictions on the right to strike in these sectors until such time that other alternatives develop to render similar services to the public in case of strikes which might occur in these single enterprises.

The Committee recalls the importance of the principle that workers and their organizations should have the possibility to strike in furtherance and defence of their economic, social and professional interests. It stresses that in situations where limitations or prohibition of strike apply, as in services whose interruption would unsettle or endanger the life of the population, the workers are deprived of all essential means to further their collective claims. They should, in compensation, be able to avail themselves of the guarantees for the settlement of collective disputes and workers and employers should be able to participate in the various stages of the procedure.

The Committee would ask the Government to indicate in its next report any decision taken where recourse to industrial action was prohibited in the above-mentioned sectors during the period covered by the report, as well as any situation in which the guarantees of settlement of collective disputes have been applied.

3. The Committee notes the Government's statement that federations and confederations enjoy the same protection as is afforded to first-level organizations under the Proclamation.

4. The Committee notes from the Government's report that Labour Proclamation No. 223/83, respecting the consolidation of peasants' organizations, deals with peasants who are self-employed and that they are therefore outside the scope of labour-related legislation.

The Committee would ask the Government to indicate whether peasants employed on their own account enjoy the right to establish organizations of their own choosing to further and defend their economic and social interests outside the existing structure, under Proclamation No. 223 which as yet does not seem to have been repealed.