Union to protest against high mine accident deaths in South Africa

The NUM, is protesting against the high rate of fatal accidents in the mining sector especially in gold mining, and will picket at multinational companies, Harmony Gold, and Sibanye Stillwater mines.

In 2021, 74 deaths were reported while 49 mineworkers were killed last year from accidents. The NUM reported that by September this year 27 mineworkers had been killed in accidents.

“The union is greatly concerned by the high rate of fatal accidents in the sector. To us, the lives of mineworkers matter the most. We will not tolerate the continued brutal killings of our members while working, trying to provide for their families. Already in 2023, the mining sector has reported 27 fatal accidents. The gold sector is leading with 15, coal sector has four, platinum sector also has four, and other sectors have four,”

said the NUM in a statement.

With the mining industry in South Africa adopting technologies that include seismic sensors, big data, and information technology to improve operations, this might have a positive effect on occupational health and safety as fatal accidents may be further reduced. The technologies that are being used include automated underground mining which reduces accidents in drilling, blasting, loading, and hauling. Other technologies are proximity detection and collision warning systems for workers including machine operators and rock fall prevention systems.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining said:

“Whilst the deaths from mining accidents are decreasing; a lot needs to be done as workers are still losing their lives. But with the laws, policies, and technology that exist more lives can be saved. The role of the health and safety shop steward at the mines continues to be key to reducing injuries and deaths.”

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, says the government continues to commit to implementing policies towards zero harm and to ensure that safer technologies and mining practices are adopted to reduce accidents. Further, the department monitors and enforces health and safety at mines through inspections and audits. It also works with trade unions, mining companies and other stakeholders in campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of complying with health and safety protocols.

Under the Mine Health and Safety Act, workers’ have a right to refuse to work in dangerous areas where their health and safety is at risk. The Act also promotes identifying hazards and developing measures to eliminate, control and minimize risks to occupational health and safety through tripartite and multistakeholder strategies and for the setting up of health and safety representatives and committees.

Unions want a just energy transition for workers in South Africa

The summit, held 19-20 September in Johannesburg, was convened by the NUM under the theme: Ensuring an energy transition that is just for workers and communities.

The summit objectives included on providing “opportunities for trade unions to consider their overall responsibility to ensure that they achieve a Just Transition that safeguard and guarantees livelihoods.”

Over a hundred participants recommended possible strategies for the energy transition in South Africa. These included learning from experiences from other countries, skills training, and other energy policy interventions. The participants included shop stewards, union leaders, government ministers and officials, sector education and training authorities, representatives from the Presidential Commission on Climate Change, the United Federation of Workers in Denmark also known as 3F, and other stakeholders.

Speaking at the summit Pravin Gordan minister of public enterprises, said plans were underway to restructure or unbundle the power utility Eskom into generation, transmission, and distribution units, and to end “massive rent seeking” behaviour and corruption at the state-owned enterprise.

In the declarations made during the summit participants stated that they want the current energy transition plans to be delayed. This will ensure fairness of the transition process to workers and communities. The delegates also further agreed that the unbundling of Eskom should also be put to a halt to allow for further consultation.

Additionally, unions expressed concerns over job losses if the coal-fired power stations were closed without due process as confirmed by a Presidential Climate Commission preliminary report on the decommissioning of Komati — Eskom’s oldest power station — which led to job losses and the collapse of value chains that were beneficial to the communities.

“As a union we are extremely serious when we call for a Just Transition and very firm that the jobs of workers in the energy sector, at coal power stations, are not for sale. The reckless closure of power stations does not only plunge us into rolling blackouts and energy poverty but leaves the rest of the Mpumalanga province with ghost towns and high unemployment. This will further deindustrialize our country,”

said Irvin Jim, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa general secretary.

Mpho Phakedi, NUM acting general secretary said:

“It is important that unions are debating and finding common ground with the government and other stakeholders on the just energy transition agenda. However, at this summit, the NUM expected government ministers and officials to articulate pro-labour interventions in the energy transition, but their statements were unsatisfactory. We wanted the government to give trade unions guarantees that the well-being of workers will not be compromised.”

Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa said:

“IndustriALL supports the union demands to have an energy transition that protect jobs and workers interests. The energy pathways proposed by the NUM which include energy sovereignty, a public energy mandate for Eskom as well as a public approach to variable renewable energy are important for social dialogue on the just energy transition.”

Nigerian unions suspend national strike after agreement with government

The government removed the subsidy in January as part of economic reforms it is implementing, and argues that it is making savings. But the unions are disputing this saying the savings cannot be made at the expense of the workers.

The removal of the subsidy on premium motor spirit or petrol triggered price increases and caused a cost-of-living crisis among the workers who are paying more in transport fares to go to work. Prices of other goods and services also went up because of the increased transportation cost as transporters raised prices.

According to the memorandum of understanding reached between the government, the Nigeria Labour Congress, and the Trade Union Congress, the strike which was supposed to begin on 3 October was suspended for 30 days to allow for social dialogue. Further, the Federal Government of Nigeria agreed to pay government workers a wage increase of 35,000 Naira (US$46), to set up a minimum wage committee within one month, and to remove valued added tax from diesel for six months.

The government also committed to improve public transport through the provision of 100 billion Naira (US$132 million) for high-capacity buses that will run on compressed natural gas (CNG). CNG buses have lower running cost than those that use petrol or diesel. The government also agreed to pay 25,000 Naira (US$20) to 15 million households and pensioners and provide tax incentives to the private sector and the public.

John Adaji, IndustriALL Sub Saharan Africa regional co-chairperson and president of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, said:

“The unions welcome the measures to meet the workers’ demands on living wages to cushion them against the removal of the subsidy. As unions we will continue to campaign for pro-worker economic policy reforms that benefit the workers and improves the livelihoods of their families.”

“Austerity measures must not sacrifice workers’ wages and ignore the realities that workers must be paid living wages to enable them to meet their basic needs,”

said Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa.

Photo: Floating petrol and diesel filling station in the Niger Delta, Stakeholder Democracy

Union to contest unjust court judgment against Malagasy unionist

Sento, an SVS trade union representative at Etoile SA, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment and fined 400 000 ariary ($89) for a social media post which provided feedback on a meeting with management at Etoile SA, a garment manufacturer and subsidiary of the ALSICO Group. This meeting discussed unpaid overtime, sick leave, workers’ concern over poor food quality in the factory canteen, and the outcome of union elections.

Sento, who was sentenced in August 2022, served eight months at Antanimora, one of the worst prisons in the world, before receiving a presidential clemency of three months. On his release he hoped to be reinstated to enable him to look after his family who suffered during his absence. But after losing the appeal his dreams of going back to work are shattered.

“I have limited options. I have to look for temporary and odd jobs. It will be very difficult to find a formal job with a criminal record. Self-employment in the informal economy seems to be one of the limited options that I have now,”

says Sento.

Despite ALSICO’s claims to support social dialogue, SVS says the company lawyers were determined to ensure that the appeal was thrown out, but the union will fight this.

SVS vigorously campaigned for Sento’s release. The union, IndustriALL and the ITUC submitted statements against the conviction at the International Labour Conference (ILC) where the report of the Committee on the Application of Standards said the government of Madagascar was violating International Labour Organization Convention 87 (Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize).

The committee report recommended urgent redress by the government of Madagascar through the following actions:

“Immediately and unconditionally quash the conviction of Mr Zotiakobanjinina Fanja Marcel Sento; refrain from using the criminal law to target trade unionists; amend all provisions of the criminal code hindering the right to freedom of association of workers and employers.”

Atle Høie, IndustriALL general secretary said:

“We support SVS in its sustained fight for workers’ rights in Madagascar. It is deceit for the ALSICO Group to talk about corporate responsibility while persecuting trade union leaders. IndustriALL concurs with the ILC that the conviction and sentence must be quashed.”

In rejoinders with ALSICO, which were facilitated by the Business and Human Rights Resource centre, IndustriALL wrote:

“This injustice is intended to intimidate and instil fear into trade union representatives with the intention of discouraging them from defending workers’ rights that are protected by the Constitution of Madagascar and the Labour Code.”

We need mandatory human rights due diligence laws now

Consensus is escalating that voluntary measures on human rights due diligence and responsible business practices are not sufficient to ensure corporate accountability because they are not binding.

The speaker series is described as a platform for advocates working in business and human rights, drawn from business, investors, civil society, and governments who are fighting to end corporate impunity and empower workers and communities to stand up against violations. The series was hosted by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.

Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland asked:

“Is this a turning point for business and human rights? Are we finally reaching the moment when powerful governments in the north and south are confident enough to direct businesses through new regulations and incentives to address unsustainable inequality and climate breakdown in their operations and supply chains. A new social compact on businees and human rights is needed.”

Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity and president of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation, an affiliate of IndustriALL, said:

“Trade union organizing, workers’ rights protection, freedom of association and safer working conditions will be enhanced by mandatory due diligence. This will act as a counterbalance to shrinking spaces of trade union organizing.”

She added that environmental and social governance approaches were now tools for green and ethical washing as they failed to stop workers’ exploitation through low wages, long working hours, child labour, and other human rights abuses.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL mining director, who was also one of the speakers said:

“Workers through trade unions are the most organized formation of civil society and powerful partners in ensuring sustainability. Unions are cautiously optimistic that the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act is changing the narrative.”

He explained that there are several cases where the law has been used to challenge corporate violations. These include cases against automotive manufacturers VW, BMW, and Mercedes Benz, garment manufacturers, and Amazon for failing to meet due diligence requirements.

To build trade union capacity, Glen Mpufane said:

“IndustriALL is carrying out awareness training on human rights due diligence jointly with IndustriAll Europe. Recently there was training of the automotive sector unions in Turkey and there will be a human rights due diligence in mining conference in Kenya, in October, which is being organized by the IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa regional office”.

The participants in the webinar heard that the African Union is integrating human rights due diligence through the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights while the same is happening in Latin America and the Caribbean where similar initiatives were aiming to stop corporate human and workers’ rights violations.

Unions demand African Union include labour provisions in business and human rights policy

On 6 and 7 September over 300 delegates from 47 African countries participated in the second African Business and Human Rights Forum (ABHRF) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The theme of the forum was: For Africa, from Africa. The forum discussed the draft African Union (AU) business and human rights policy, businesses responsibility to due diligence and access to effective remedies when violations occur.

However the ITUC Global Rights Index 2023, published before the coups in Niger and Gabon, states that workers’ rights violations were increasing with dire implications on business and human rights in Africa.

The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung-African Union (FES AU) cooperation office and the IndustriALL Sub- Saharan Africa (SSA) regional office hosted a workshop prior to the forum which discussed union strategies. The unions, which are affiliated to IndustriALL, BWI, ITF, and IUF are from Kenya, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and represented workers in the agriculture, building, cement, construction, forestry, mining, oil and gas, textile and garment, transport, wood, and other sectors.

On the critical role of unions, Alex Geiger, FES AU director said:

“The central role of trade unions should be emphasized in the ABHRF and NAP processes. NAPs are important for social dialogue at national level and unions, human rights institutions, and other stakeholders should utilise them to promote human and workers’ rights.”

In closing remarks at the forum, Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for SSA said:

“We are demanding the recognition of trade unions by the AU and for their inclusion as key stakeholders in business and human rights as distinct organizations that serve workers’ interests as mandated by their members.
Unions are interlocutors on workers’ rights and including them under the broad umbrella of civil society organizations in most instances tend to compromise the labour agenda. Further, the inclusion of ILO standards are important for the AU policy business and human rights as well as the African Continental Free trade Area agreement.”

Job losses wreck livelihoods in Ethiopia’s garment industry

IFTLGWU, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, said 11 workers were killed and factories bombed during the war in Tigray in the north. The Pretoria agreement that ended the war was signed in November 2022.

The Ethiopian government estimates that millions of jobs were lost when the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) benefits were withdrawn over “failure to defend internationally recognised human rights” during the war. Further, garment brands that included H&M, PVH, and others stopped manufacturing and sourcing garments for the same reasons.

IndustriALL talked to seven workers who lost jobs at the Epic Group, Best International Garments, and Quadrant Apparel Group factories in Hawassa industrial park on 1 September.

“I came to work as usual but got the shock of my life when I received a termination letter at the end of the shift. I had been laid off. I have a family to look after but it is difficult when you have no money,”

said Weyneshet Wendimoget.

The workers said some retrenchments were unlawful as employers did not follow the procedures in the labour laws. The union says employers did this to avoid paying terminal benefits. However, the dismissals were challenged in court and workers won.

Even highly skilled workers like Desbele Birmay were not spared:

“After receiving design training through the EPIC Group in Viet Nam, I came back to Ethiopia and worked in the cut department before being retrenched. The war was a double tragedy for me because I am from Tigray and could not go home after losing my job because of the conflict. So, I remained in Hawassa surviving on piece jobs and handouts from friends. But you only get temporary jobs for less than 60 days because employers are not interested in giving you a permanent contract.”

Workers who remained at work faced job insecurity and poor wages as export orders declined forcing factories to cut production.

“With inflation high (28.8 per cent in July) it is difficult to make sense of how workers are surviving on the low wages. Living wages should be at least 10,000 Birr (US$181). But it is worse for the retrenched,”

said the workers who mentioned that machine operators were paid 2,200 – 2,800 Birr (US$40-51).

The Ethiopian government has approved plans to reduce income tax and will also introduce minimum wages and set up a wages board after unions threated to go on strike.

Angesom Gebre Yohannes, president of the IFTGLWTU said:

“The suspension of AGOA affected many factories at Adama, Bole Lemi, Hawassa, and Kombolcha industrial parks. In instances, factories that jointly worked on orders that were exported duty free to the US found themselves with now work to do. Hence, we would like the suspension to be lifted to bring back jobs, and investment.”

Said Atle Høie, IndustriALL general secretary:

“With dialogue and reconciliation taking place, we hope that the resumption of trade will restore and create decent jobs especially for women and the youth. We hope for a recovery of the trade union membership which was eroded by retrenchments and are in solidarity with the IFTGLWTU in its efforts to build the union.”

Kenyan court orders Proto Energy to pay union dues

On 5 July, the court ruled that Proto Energy must remit the dues of 722 workers to the union. The court also ordered the company to sign a recognition agreement with the union in accordance with section 54 of the Labour Relations Act, 2007.

KPOWU organized the workers in 2021 and sent check-off forms and a recognition agreement to the company which they refused to sign. Proto Energy, which employs about 1,000 workers, also ignored written reminders from the union to sign the agreement.

The union asked the Kenyan government to intervene and declared a dispute with the employer. After the matter went for conciliation, Proto Energy started intimidating unionized workers. To stop the intimidation, KPOWU went to the courts.

George Okoth, KPOWU general secretary, said:

“Before going to court we tried to engage with the employer through written reminders and social dialogue. After declaring a trade dispute, we went for conciliation, but the employer ignored the recommendations. The union eventually sought legal action after realizing that there was no commitment to resolving the dispute amicably.”

Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa, said:

“We praise KPOWU for standing up for workers’ rights at Proto Energy. Kenyan workers have a right to join a union and the union has organizing and collective bargaining rights. Employers must comply with the national labour laws and international labour standards and must stop practices that undermine trade union activities and workers’ rights.”

Freedom of association and collective bargaining are protected by Kenya’s Constitution which states that workers have a right to fair labour relations including the right to join and participate in trade union activities. The Labour Relations Act also protects trade union rights and regulates dispute resolution.

Proto Energy, a subsidiary of Africa Oil and Gas Limited, supplies liquified petroleum gas for domestic and industrial use.

Ugandan unions sign MOU on social dialogue

This memorandum will make improvements to workers’ lives, currently there is an industriALL East African Union Building project (IEAUBP)with affiliates in Uganda which focusses on more systematic social dialogue. It improves labour market framework conditions, increases gender equality and equity, and just transition to climate change and environment friendly production.

Before the signing, there were restrictions on trade union rights on freedom of association and collective bargaining, which allowed many employers to not recognize trade unions.

Moving forward the team, who consists of national council members, general secretaries, facilitators and chairpersons will meet in September to develop a road map on how to move forward.

Other clauses in the memorandum include promoting good industrial relations and economic and social justices.

“The MOU is an important breakthrough which we have been waiting for quite some time. If implemented well, it will reduce the restriction of trade union rights in Uganda creating decent work and the promotion of workplace social dialogue,”

says the general secretary of Uganda Printers, Paper,Polyfibre and Allied Workers Union (UPPPAWU).

IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa regional secretary Paule Ndessomin says,

“creating social dialogue between employers and unions is fundamental to achieving better conditions for workers. We applaud our affiliates for their continuous fight for workers’ rights.”

The four Ugandan IndustriALL affiliates include Uganda Chemical Petroleum and Allied Workers Union (UCPAWU), Uganda Textile, Garment, Leather and Allied Workers Union (UTGLAWU), Hotels Tourism, Supermarket and allied Workers Union (HTS-U) and Uganda Printers, Paper, Polyfirbre and Allied Workers Union (UPPPAWU)

Uganda ratifies ILO Convention 190

Together with other unions in Uganda, IndustriALL affiliates have been active in campaigning for the ratification of C190, participating in the official consultative committee and working directly with the relevant ministries.

Unions organized a stakeholder meeting with the National organization of trade unions (NOTU) and the Central organization of free trade unions (COFTU), civil society, members of parliament, workers, union leaders, and the ministry of labour.

Posters and other campaign materials were developed to stress the message Ratify and domesticate ILO C190 on violence and harassment in the world of work in Uganda.

Involving women and youth in the campaign was crucial as they are the most affected by violence and harassment in the world of work. To raise awareness on the importance of the Convention among the public, the unions organized several press conferences, involving the Uganda Broadcasting corporation.

"The Convention will foster a safe and respectful workplace environment for both female and male workers once it is domesticated. However,we will not sit back until C190 is domesticated,"

says Irene Faith Lanyero, chairperson of IndustriALL National Women Committee-Uganda and assistant national treasureer of Uganda Textile,Garment Leather and Allied Workers Union (UTGLAWU).

“ILO C190 is key for a workplace without violence and harassment, and we applaud our affiliates’ campaigning which have been instrumental in Uganda ratifying the Convention,”

says Paule Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary.

Convention 190 is the first international labour standard to address violence and harassment in the world of work. Together with Recommendation 206, it provides a common framework for action and a unique opportunity to shape a future of work based on dignity and respect.