Interim Report - Report No 157, June 1976

1. 162. The Committee last examined this case at its session in November 1975 when it submitted to the Governing Body an interim report which is contained in paragraphs 4 to 28 of the Committee's 155th Report (approved by the Governing Body at its 198th Session, November 1975).
2. 163. Ethiopia has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 164. The Committee recalls that the allegations made by the ICFTU related to the continuing detention, without trial, of Mr. Beyene Solomon, President of the Confederation of Ethiopian Labour Unions (CELU), and Deputy Workers' member of the Governing Body of the ILO, Mr. Gidey Gabre, Vice-President of the CELU, and Mr. Fisseha Tsion Tekie, General Secretary of the CELU; to the dissolution of the CELU; to events concerning the Ethiopian Airline Workers' union in which seven members of this union had lost their lives; and to the arrest of the trade unionists Marcos Hagos and 12 members of the executive of the CELU.
2. 165. As regards the detention of Mr. Beyene Solomon and his colleagues the Committee had deplored the fact that although more than one year had elapsed since the three officials of the CELU had been arrested, these persons were still in detention without any formal charge having been brought against them and without their having been brought before the courts.
3. 166. In the circumstances, the Committee pointed out, as it has done in all previous cases' in which trade union leaders have been preventively detained, that such measures may involve a serious interference with the exercise of trade union rights and that all detained persons have the right to receive a fair trial at the earliest possible moment. In addition, the Committee has always attached importance to the principle of prompt and fair trial by an independent and impartial judiciary in all cases, including cases in which trade unionists are charged with political or criminal offences which the Government considers have no relation to their trade union functions.
4. 167. The Committee also pointed out that if, in certain cases, it has reached the conclusion that allegations relating to measures taken against trade unionists did not call for further examination, this was only after it had received information from the Government showing sufficiently precisely and with sufficient detail that the measures were in no way occasioned by trade union activities. Furthermore, the Committee has considered that, in cases involving the arrest, detention or sentencing of a trade union official, taking the view that individuals have the right to be presumed innocent until found guilty, it is incumbent upon the Government to show that the measures it has taken were in no way occasioned by the trade union activities of the individual concerned.
5. 168. The Committee requested the Director-General to send a telegram to the Government requesting it, in the name of the Committee, to supply details of the charges brought against Beyene Solomon and his colleagues, to consent to receiving a tripartite delegation of the Governing Body before any trial of these persons, and to reply to these points before 18 November 1975, so that the Governing Body might have the information before it during its discussion of this case.
6. 169. In addition, the Committee recommended the Governing Body to request the Government to liberate Mr. Solomon and his colleagues if no charges were brought against them, or, if charges were brought, to ensure that they were tried promptly and fairly by an independent and impartial judiciary and to communicate the date fixed for the trial.
7. 170. In accordance with the request of the Committee, the Director-General sent a telegram to the Government on 11 November 1975. No reply having been received, the Director-General, at the request of the Governing Body, sent a further telegram to the Government on 24 November 1975 in which he renewed the request to receive a tripartite delegation of the Governing Body before any trial of Mr. Beyene Solomon and his colleagues, and urged the Government to extend its co-operation by transmitting an early reply.
8. 171. The Government has not yet replied to the matters raised in the communications referred to in the foregoing paragraph.
9. 172. As regards the allegations concerning the CELU, it appeared to the Committee that this organisation had not been dissolved, although there had been a temporary suspension of its activities and closure of its headquarters by the government authorities.
10. 173. In a further communication dated 19 December 1975, the ICFTU stated that a new labour law had been promulgated in Ethiopia on 6 December 1975 by virtue of which an All-Ethiopia Trade Union had been created to replace the CELU, in violation of Convention No. 87. This communication was duly transmitted to the Government for its observations.
11. 174. The Government, while not sending any reply on the other matters on which the Committee had requested information, transmitted a letter dated 29 January 1976 in which it sent the text of the new Labour Proclamation referred to by the ICFTU, and stated that, in its view, the new law guarantees wider freedom of association than the repealed labour law, and in fact exceeds in many respects the provisions of Convention No. 87.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 175. The Committee notes from the text of the new Labour Proclamation that the CELU is replaced by an organisation known as the All-Ethiopia Trade Union, with the rights and obligations of the CELU transferred to it. In this connection, the Committee would point out that it has emphasised the importance that it attaches to the fact that workers and employers should, in actual practice, be able to form and join organisations of their own choosing in full freedom, In addition, the Committee would recall that unification of the trade union movement imposed through state intervention by legislative means runs counter to the principle embodied in Articles 2 and 11 of Convention No. 87. The Committee of Experts of the ILO on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations has emphasised on this question that "there is a fundamental difference, with respect to the guarantees of freedom of association and protection of the right to organise, between a situation in which a trade union monopoly is instituted or maintained by legislation and the factual situations which are found to exist in certain countries in which all the trade union organisations join together voluntarily in a single federation or Confederation, without this being the direct or indirect result of legislative provisions applicable to trade unions and to the establishment of trade union organisations. The fact that workers and employers generally find it in their interests to avoid a multiplication of the number of competing organisations does not, in fact, appear sufficient to justify direct or indirect intervention by the State, and, especially, intervention by the State by means of legislation". While fully appreciating the desire of any government to promote a strong trade union movement by avoiding the defects resulting from an undue multiplicity of small and competing trade unions, whose independence may be endangered by this weakness, the Committee has drawn attention to the fact that it is more desirable in such cases for a government to seek to encourage trade unions to join together voluntarily to form strong and united organisations than to impose upon them by legislation a compulsory unification which deprives the workers of the free exercise of their right of association and thus runs counter to the principles which are embodied in the International Labour Conventions relating to freedom of association.
2. 176. The Committee would, accordingly, draw the attention of the Government to the above principles and considerations, and, in view of the nature of the allegations, would refer this aspect of the case to the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations for examination under the procedure laid down in article 22 of the ILO Constitution.
3. 177. As regards the allegations relating to certain events which bad resulted in the deaths of seven members of the Ethiopian Airline Workers' Union, the Committee had recommended the Governing Body to request the Government to indicate whether it intended to carry out a detailed inquiry in order to determine the facts and establish responsibility in connection with these events, and to communicate the text of a pamphlet, the distribution of which was stated by the Government to have led to the situation which resulted in the deaths of the trade unionists.
4. 178. The Committee had also recommended the Governing Body to request the Government to transmit its observations on the allegations made by the complainants concerning the restrictions on trade union rights under the state of emergency and the arrest of the trade unionist Marcos Hagos and 12 members of the executive of CELU.
5. 179. The Committee can only once again express its grave concern that, in spite of the serious nature of the allegations made against the Government, and, in particular of those which involve the lives and liberty of a number of trade unionists - for example, Mr. Beyene Solomon and his colleagues - and in spite of the requests made by the Director-General in the name of the Committee and the Governing Body for information concerning these trade unionists the Government has failed to provide the information so requested, or reply to the requests made to it to receive a tripartite delegation of the Governing Body before any trial of Mr. Beyene Solomon and his colleagues. The Committee, nevertheless, trusts that the Government will supply positive information on the situation of Mr. Beyene Solomon and his colleagues prior to the session of the Governing Body.