Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Lesotho (Ratification: 1966)

Article 2 of the Convention. Right of trainees to organize. The Committee notes that under section 4 of the Labour Act, 2024, “trade union” is defined as “a combination, either temporary or permanent, of ten or more workers, the purposes of which is, under its constitution, the representation and promotion of workers’ interests”, whereas “trainee” means a person who is being trained by or for an employer orfor employment, under an existing training scheme in any trade oroccupation. Recalling that trainees should have the right to organize, the Committee requests the Government to indicate whether persons hired under training agreements, as apprentices or otherwise, have the right to join workers’ organizations and participate in their activities.

Article 3. Right of organizations to organize their activities in full freedom. Labour Act, 2024. The Committee notes that under section 4 of the Labour Act, the purpose of “strike” is to remedy a grievance to resolve a dispute in respect of any matter of mutual interest between an employer and a worker, which would appear to exclude strikes and protest actions relating to the Government’s economic and social policies, including general strikes, and sympathy strikes. The Committee recalls that trade unions and employers’ organizations responsible for defending socio-economic and occupational interests should be able to use, respectively, strike action or protest action to support their position in the search for solutions to problems posed by major social and economic policy trends which have a direct impact on their members. Furthermore, in the context of globalization characterized by increasing interdependence and the internationalization of production, workers should be able to engage in sympathy strikes, provided that the initial strike they are supporting is itself lawful (see the General Survey of 2012 on the fundamental Conventions, paragraphs 124 and 125). The Committee requests the Government to indicate legal provisions which guarantee the right to engage in such strike actions in private and public sectors, with the only possible exception of workers who are public servants exercising authority in the name of the State, or in the absence of such provisions, to take necessary measures to ensure that workers can exercise their rights under the Convention and to indicate all measures taken to that end.

The Committee notes that according to section 207(3)(c) of the Labour Act, a strike is unlawful and not protected if it is in breach of section 215(4) of the same Act. The Committee notes, however, that there is no subsection (4) in section 215. The Committee requests the Government to provide clarification in this respect.

Public Service Act. Restrictions on the exercise of the right to strike and compensatory guarantees. In its previous comments, the Committee expected that section 19 of the Public Service Act of 2005 would be modified shortly to ensure that the prohibition of the right to strike in the public service would be limited to public servants exercising authority in the name of the State, and that adequate compensatory guarantees would be provided to workers who are deprived of the right to strike. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that the Ministry of Public Service is at a final stage of reviewing the Public Service Act of 2005 and that this review will include: (i) the right of public officers to strike with the exception of those engaged in the essential services and those who exercise authority in the name of the State; and (ii) compensatory guarantees such as arbitration machinery for those categories of workers who are prohibited from engaging in strike. The Committee welcomes this information and expects that the review of the Public Service Act of 2005 will be completed shortly; it requests the Government to transmit a copy of the amended Act.