Swazi union condemns garment company for not respecting workers’ rights

Although ATUSWA organizes more than 80 per cent of workers at Tex Ray companies, including Union Industrial Washing, Kasumi Apparels, TQM textiles and Katat, the company refuses to recognize the union and has instead formed a sham union.

Organizing through denouncing ATUSWA and using bribes to attract workers, the management-led union is aiming to get the necessary recognition at the Commission for Mediation Arbitration and Conciliation (CMAC) ahead of the finalization of ATUSWA’s recognition.

If buyers continue to source garments from the Tex Ray group of companies without ensuring that the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is respected, they are effectively collaborating with Tex Ray in undermining our rights as workers.
We call on the Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority and the department of labour to continuously engage employers on the importance of respecting workers’ rights. Tex Ray should not be allowed to take our country back to the past that we wish to escape from,

says ATUSWA Secretary General Wander Mkhonza.

“We stand by ATUSWA in their fight for recognition and reiterate workers' right to form their own trade union. Employers should not try to weaken an established trade union by sponsoring a sham union. We call upon CMAC to urgently conclude on ATUSWA’s recognition,“ says Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa.

IndustriALL and AngloAmerican collaborate on creating safe and healthy workplaces

The meeting was attended by delegates from IndustriALL affiliates from Australia, Botswana, Chile, Namibia and South Africa, and lead senior health and safety managers at Anglo American globally, discussed ways to stop accidents that often led to injuries and death of mine workers. Health effects of occupational diseases were also discussed.

AngloAmerican is a signatory to international protocols such as of the United Nations Global Compact and ILO conventions. The initiative, for instance, commits Anglo American to the International Labour Organization Convention 176 on Safety and Health in Mines. The initiative also commit Anglo American to using its influence to leverage joint country shareholder partners to ratify ILO Convention 176 such as in Botswana,Chile, and Namibia.

As part of the collaboration, training will be conducted on awareness and workers’ rights, hazards, risk analysis, and critical control management. Those who will attend the training will include workers, safety representatives, supervisors and managers.

The collaboration will address real daily experiences at workplaces in the global mining industry as well as integrate with the companies’ human resources policies. It aims to create a new health and safety culture across the business.

“Safety and health should be demonstrated even when no one is watching. Everyone is a custodian, and managers and supervisors should be accountable. Contractors who violate safety procedures should be accountable”, Says Michael Parker, Head of Group Safety, Operational Risk and Insurance at AngloAmerican.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL mining director adds: “Integrity is non-negotiable. We are calling for a global collective bargaining agreement which will provide guarantees and safeguards on safety and health that should include downstream sectors across the supply chain. A safety culture practice should be institutionalized.”

The mining industry must respect labour and community rights: IndustriALL

The Indaba has brought investors, mining companies, governments and other stakeholders from around the world together in the city for the last 20 years. For the first time, this year’s event included a Sustainable Development Day with the motto “Transforming the industry to make mining work for the people”.

This resonates with last years’ theme – “Leaving no one Behind” – suggesting that a consensus is developing between labour, civil society, industry and governments about how dialogue is fundamental to addressing the industry’s pressing challenges.

Across town, the Alternative Mining Indaba (AMI) was held with the theme of “Making Natural Resources Work for the People: Towards Just Legal, Policy and Institutional Reforms”. The AMI was made up of 600 members from civil society organizations, including faith-based, community-based, Pan African networks, labour, women, human rights activists, the media and students.

In a petition to mining companies and governments, the AMI called for the interests of communities affected by mining to be put before profit. This could be done through public ownership that ensures sustainability and equity in mining. Policy reforms should end exploitation by removing unjust laws, and replace the use of force with dialogue. Corruption should be targeted, as it is common for corrupt mining companies to work with elites and exclude communities.

At the AMI there were also calls for governments to adopt the African Mining Vision which calls for: “A sustainable and well-governed mining sector that effectively garners and deploys resource rents and that is safe, healthy, gender and ethnically inclusive, environmentally friendly, socially responsible and appreciated by surrounding communities”.

They called for the recognition of artisanal and small-scale miners by including them in government policies and legislation. Dialogue between workers and communities with governments and mining companies was also demanded.

IndustriALL was represented at both events. As a major stakeholder, IndustriALL was invited to participate in different panels and in the closing session of the African Mining Indaba.

Speaking on a panel on labour and community rights, IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan, emphasized workers’ rights and health and safety.

“Recognizing and respecting workers’ rights is key. This includes the right to join a trade union, and the protection of collective bargaining agreements.
“Fundamental health and safety rights, to know, to refuse and to participate, must be the basis. Workers are experts on what goes on at their workplaces. Therefore, they should be involved in health and safety.”
“We must also achieve the international standards in Convention 176 on Safety and Health in the mines and other ILO recommendations and ratifications”.

He added that building trust between mining companies, trade unions and communities and exercising due diligence were important.

On the sidelines of the both Indabas, the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, to which IndustriALL is a key stakeholder representing labour, was launched. IRMA has developed a standard for responsible mining, which includes responsible sourcing along the supply chain.

IndustriALL and Rio Tinto make joint mission to Madagascar

The QMM operation has been facing serious challenges regarding health and safety and labour rights, which local management and trade unions had been unable to resolve. These challenges are derived from the excessive and uncontrolled use of sub-contractors, who outnumber permanent employees by three to one. Subcontractor workers at QMM have insecure jobs and lack of access to normal conditions of employment. There is no institutionalized form of worker representation on health and safety, and their right to freedom of association is, at best, tenuous.

Taking part in the joint IndustriALL and Rio Tinto mission to Madagascar, were Rio Tinto management, trade unions comprising Piet Matosa of the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa; Steve Hunt, Alain Croteau and Steeve Arsenault from United Steelworkers/Métallos, Canada; Glen Mpufane from IndustriALL; and representatives from IndustriALL Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Office and local unions. The group visited the site and later met with local community leaders.

The parties reviewed employment and contracting practices at the site. Local management could not confirm nor deny our affiliates’ claims that wages for sub-contractor employees are just US$45 per month, below the minimum wage of US$53 per month. Workers generally work 15 or 16 hours per day. The living wage is estimated at around US$400/month and 80 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.

There are also systematic challenges for communities and landowners, not unique to mining, related to resettlement and compensation issues, which have been compounded by poverty levels in the country. According to the World Bank, 70 per cent of the island’s 22.6 million population live on less than US$2 a day and 59 per cent on less than US$1.25, ranking the country amongst the poorest in the world.

The parties had a constructive discussion about Rio Tinto’s new Supplier Code of Conduct and how it could be implemented at QMM to help resolve the challenges. It was generally agreed that implementation of the Code at the site would be a welcome development and improve the well-being of workers.

Michael Gavin, Rio Tinto Head of Employee Relations, said of the mission: “This meeting was a great opportunity for the company and union leaders to demonstrate, at the operations level, how employee representatives and the company can work together respectfully and for mutually beneficial outcomes.”

Steve Hunt, District 3 Director of the United Steelworkers and Co-Chair of IndustriALL’s Mining and Diamond, Gems, Ornament and Jewellery Production Section, and who led the global mission, stated: “We have come a long way since the Rio Tinto campaign. There is now dialogue and cooperation in place of acrimony. This meeting demonstrated the fact that Rio Tinto and its major unions are working collaboratively to improve the lives of employees and the company.”

IndustriALL and Rio Tinto later discussed the mission as an example of global dialogue at the Investing in Africa Mining Indaba held in Cape Town, South Africa from 5 – 7 February 2018.

South Africa: Demand for better safety after nearly 1,000 miners trapped

All the 955 miners had been brought to the surface by around 6am on Friday 2 February after being stuck down the mine following a storm on the night of Wednesday 31 January that caused a power outage.

“They are all healthy, but they are just exhausted and resting at home,” said IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). “The NUM is concerned that there were no contingency measures or plans put in place to deal with this kind of an incident.”

Only last week, at least 30 mineworkers were trapped for 12 hours at the Harmony Phakisa mine, also in Free State. Every year since 2012, over 70 people have died underground as a result of mining accidents in South Africa. The number of deaths at South African mines has increased in 2016 and 2017, after years of declining fatalities.

“The NUM is extremely worried about health and safety measures in all mining companies in South Africa. We are calling upon the Department of Mineral Resources as the regulator in the mining industry to conduct infrastructure audits in all mining houses to see if they are ready to deal with these kinds of incidents when they happen.”

Meanwhile, IndustriALL affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), is demanding that Sibanye-Stillwater Beatrix Mine should remain shut pending a full investigation.

“We are calling on the Department of Mineral Resources to do a thorough investigation before allowing the mine to continue its usual operations. They must also investigate why the mine seemingly did not have a back-up generator when the power outage occurred.”

IndustriALL Global Union’s assistant general secretary, Kemal Özkan, said:

“We are alarmed by the increasing number of deaths in the South African mining industry and this latest incident must act as a clear warning to mining companies to review and renew their safety procedures to prevent a possible disaster in the future.”

Swaziland: Union welcomes return to US-Africa trade agreement

Swaziland was removed from the list of beneficiaries three years ago for not respecting workers’ rights including freedoms of assembly, association and expression. To reverse this, the government worked closely with the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland, to which ATUSWA is affiliated, to improve on the rights. The US subsequently restored trade benefits to Swaziland on 23 December 2017.

AGOA is a trade agreement that allows duty free market access to the US for products from Sub Saharan African countries. The product range includes textile and apparel. According to the US International Trade Administration 33 countries qualify for AGOA benefits.

Wander Mkhonza, secretary general of ATUSWA, says:

“We are encouraged that our beautiful country is back within the AGOA fold. Our readmission is a testimony that great achievements can only be realized when government, labour and employers work together for common good."

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

“Linking trade agreements to workers’ rights is important, and this makes the return of AGOA a welcome development. Workers’ power comes from increases in membership, and membership cannot grow if trade unions rights are not respected."

ATUSWA is also hoping that court cases challenging its existence as a union will be concluded soon. The union says the cases are dividing workers and holding it back. For instance, the union is unable to receive subscriptions from workers whose membership is in dispute.

On collective bargaining, ATUSWA is campaigning for a joint negotiating council in the textile and apparel sector. The union disagrees with suggestions that Swaziland is not ready for collective bargaining because the Industrial Relations Act supports it. According to the union, the current set up in which wage councils are responsible for bargaining is leading to low wages thus threatening workers’ livelihoods. The wage councils, made up of people handpicked by the government, are not representing workers.

ATUSWA says it will continue to fight companies that are anti-union and campaign for minimum wages. Further, it will recruit young workers, ensure safe and secure jobs, transparent workplaces, and better industrial relations.

Namibia: Union protest sloppy safety standards at Skorpion Zinc mine

The workers are demanding improved communication on safety issues at the mine, which is owned by Vedanta Zinc International. They want the mine to improve safety by reporting to workers conditions at the open cast mine including slope failures and pit wall structures, train workers on emergency evacuation procedures, and discipline managers who report for work drunk.

The MUN says the continued neglect of safety precautions is putting workers lives at risk. For instance, when there was a slope failure on 18 December 2017, the management seemed confused. This happened despite getting advice from experts on how to deal with slope failures and stabilizing the walls of the mining pit.

Further, workers were not being trained on necessary evacuation procedures in cases of emergency. According to the MUN, safety standards are falling as “it has become a norm that procedures and policies are ignored to increase production, and safety standards dropped leading to unsafe working conditions”.

Another threat to safety at the mine is drunkenness. The MUN suspects that managers refusing breathalyzer tests often came to work drunk contrary to the mine’s alcohol and drug abuse policy. One of the managers has since been suspended after workers cornered him to take an alcohol test which proved that he indeed came to work drunk.

Further, the union wants Skorpion to improve workers skills through training and for subcontractors, Basil Read, to employ more local staff at management level as well as provide personal protective equipment. Skilled workers should also be recognised through certification especially after attending courses on how to operate machines.

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

“Safety at mines is non-negotiable, and mining companies must always ensure that standards are adhered to. Therefore, it is not acceptable for mining companies to sacrifice workers safety to increase production targets and profits.”

Textile workers remain with no jobs, no pay in Madagascar

Just 15 days before the beginning of the Christmas and New Year break workers of the Malagasy company CLASSIC KNITWEAR represented by the IndustriALL Global Union affiliate Syndicalisme et Vie des Sociétés (SVS), received notice of technical unemployment. The company refers to the reduced number of orders as the reason for their decision.

On 11 December 2017, workers were announced they are on a leave for 30 days followed by technical unemployment from 8 January to 5 March 2018.

According to the union the national labour inspectorate approved the company’s decision without a proper investigation of the causes of the situation. Thus, workers who have no longer left a day of holiday will remain in an unconfirmed status for at least 30 days and later will face a sort of “zero contract” situation for another two months at least, deprived of gain sources and not even able to search for a new job.

As per the situation on 09 December 2017 the employer still refuses to pay neither for the time of leave or unemployment whatsoever. The workers tried in vain to solve the issue through the labour reconciliation two times including the most recent session on 21 December.

The same day workers went on indefinite strike. The SVS union demands that the government representatives, namely labour inspectorate and minister of labour, interfere and settle the problem.

Workers’ demands are as follows:

to remain on a technical leave with payment of the remained part of their salary, including leave allocation and a non-refundable safety monthly payment equal to MGA200.000 (US$62) and the guarantee to return to work on 5 March 2018; or
to end the contract with all due payments including payment of the due salary, compensation for not taken leave, a notice as well as an indemnity of dismissal of 10 days per year of seniority.

Ivory Coast: Continued fight for workers’ rights in the oil sector

Klenzi dismissed eight workers for refusing to denounce their union membership, in clear violation of their freedom of association, as well as of the country’s labour laws.

However, the company’s lawyers are denying violations, and the ministry of labour is asking SYNTEPCI to provide evidence. The union is surprised by this as it gave evidence for the violations a long time ago and see the new request as time wasting. Whilst all this is happening the workers are yet to receive their benefits and struggling to survive. For instance, one of the dismissed workers, Verbier Gautier, has no place to stay after being evicted for failing to pay rent.

Libya Oil, having retrenched eight workers, is refusing to abide by the conditions of a signed agreement. The agreement clearly states that fair compensation should be given to workers when retrenched.

Petroci is also breaking the law by employing temporary workers for more than six months. Some 200 workers have been on temporary contracts from five to even 15 years and have no benefits.

Jérémie Wondje, general secretary, for SYNTEPCI says: “In August, when we picketed at Klenzi offices in Abidjan against the blatant union bashing, the company called in the police and the military to disperse the workers. However, they left without incident after realizing that the picket was caused by a labour dispute.

We are demanding the reinstatement of the workers. The companies lack commitment and this is frustrating; the issue should have been resolved by now.

Fabian Nkomo, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa, adds:

We are in solidarity with SYNTEPCI that has remained resolute despite sustained intimidation, and have written to the Government of the Ivory Coast and the ministry of labour to express our disappointment with Klenzi’s union bashing tactics. The oil companies in the Ivory Coast need to respect workers’ rights.

The union is supported by the confederation UGTCI, the Ivorian League of Human Rights and the Ivorian Human Rights Commission.

Minimum wage win for unions in Mauritius

The new monthly minimum wage announced in parliament on 8 December is Rs 8,140 (US$232) but various compensation payments by the government or the Mauritius Revenue Authority will mean that all workers will take home Rs 9,000.

“I can assure you that for 2019, employees will not be paid less than 9,000 rupees,” declared the Labour Minister for Mauritius, Soodesh Callichurn, about the decision that will benefit around 120,000 workers in the country.

It will be a significant increase for many workers, particularly those in the textile sector, some of whom were averaging only RS 4,000 (US$114) a month, according to unions. Ninety per cent of workers in the Mauritian textile and garment industry are women; conditions are tough and many need to stand all day while they work.

Once the new minimum wage comes into effect, these garment workers will be paid RS 9,000 for a 45-hour week. It will mean they will no longer have to work such long hours to scrape a living.

However, the figure is still below what trade unions judge to be a living wage, calculated at around RS 14,500 (US$414) in 2014.

Reeaz Chuttoo from IndustriALL Global Union affiliate in Mauritius, the Chemical, Manufacturing and Connected Trades Employees Union (CMCTEU), said:

“It’s a step in the right direction. I also appreciate that the government has decided to include the 20,000 workers in the free trade zone (in Mauritius).”

Trade unions have been pushing for the new minimum wage during tripartite negotiations with the government and employers in Mauritius.

IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary, Jenny Holdcroft, said:

“This is an important win for trade unions in Mauritius. Years of campaigning have paid dividends and the new minimum wage will make an enormous difference to the lives of thousands of workers, particularly women. We congratulate our affiliates in Mauritius on their success as they continue to push for a living wage.”