SEEK LOCAL SOLUTIONS BEFORE APPROACHING INTERNATIONAL BODIES - ILO

EZULWINI – To address disputes between government and workers in the country, ILO Director Joni Musabayani says the parties should give national institutions a chance before approaching international bodies.

ILO is an abbreviation for the International Labour Organisation. Musabayani was speaking yesterday at a press briefing held at the Royal Villas Hotel. The press briefing was meant for the director to introduce himself and his delegation that is in the country for various labour-related assignments.

Media

In regard to solving labour-related issues internally, he was responding to questions from the media which sought to know if ILO had received complaints from the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA). TUCOSWAhad been, over the past days telling its affiliates that it had reported the workers’rights violation that they said was happening in the country. In response to this, Musabayani confirmed to have received the case from TUCOSWA and they were attending to it but they were advocating for the utilisation of national institutions first. “Let us not always in the first place wish to approach the international bodies before the national processes have been exhausted,” said Musabayani.

He said the agreement that had been reached was that the case had been received, but because of the support of institutions for dialogue that had been received in the country over time, they should be given a chance. He said stakeholders should give national institutions a chance to resolve the issues that TUCOSWA had reported. He said as for ILO, they supported those national institutions. The director said there was a voluntary conciliation mechanism that the ILO office was supporting the national partners to undertake. He said while they were in the country, they would have a dialogue with all relevant stakeholders in finding a way of moving the above process forward.

TUOSWA Secretary General (SG) Mduduzi Gina said they reported the case to ILO, Geneva, who then advised that there were other options that would be used before the matter was dealt with on merit by the committee on freedom of association under ILO. He narrated that in this instance, it was the federation that asked ILO to approve a local or internal mediation process. Gina said the complaints that they reported to ILO were genuine, such that they were ready to back them up in a mediation process. He said it had been said over the years that unions reported issues to international bodies other than to address them locally because they were afraid to do so, as those issues were not true. He said as TUCOSWA, they were not afraid to table those issues internally. Gina said if the internal mediation process would eventually happen in the country, it would be the first of its kind.

Mediation

He said it was then agreed that the internal process would be given six months to find solutions to the matters. He said failure to do that, it was then agreed that ILO would then appoint a mediator. The SG said they were looking forward to meeting the ILO director and his delegation for further discussions. Meanwhile, the ILO director said they were currently focusing on assisting the country in trying to solve the high unemployment rate. Musabayani told the media that they had come to the country to check the progress made in achieving the National Development Strategy 1997-2022 and in line with that, the implementation plans that had been formulated along the way. He highlighted that the country was in a process of developing yet another strategy.

The director also noted that another issue they had come to discuss with the country’s government and relevant stakeholders was the youth unemployment. He noted that 73 per cent of the country’s population was the youth, a huge percentage of that youth was unemployed, standing at 58 per cent. He said this figure indicated a serious challenge that the country was facing. He said issues of unemployment were labour market issues. Musabayani said while in the country, they would like to review the kingdom’s unemployment situation.