Steel Union Waits to Strike Pending Investigation

The strike planned by the labour union of Ethiopian Steel Plc for November 2, 2010, was put on hold while their dispute is being investigated by the Addis Abeba City Administration Employees and Social Issues Office.

The labour union postponed the strike after a meeting with the Ethiopian Industrial Federation of Construction, Wood, Metal, Cement, and other Trade Unions and the city’s Employees and Social Issues Office on October 27.

On October 23, the labour union had notified them and the management of the company in writing of the strike planned if their demands were not met.

“The city administration’s Employees and Social Issues Office became involved to try to settle the issue amicably,” Birtukan Eshete, officer of Education, Research, and Training for the office, told Fortune. “We have already met and agreed to investigate the matter with both parties.”

A breach of the collective agreement between the management and union was cited by the latter as the reason for deciding to strike. An alleged nine violations of the collective agreement, signed five years ago by the management of the company and the labour union, were listed in the letter informing the company of the strike.

The alleged abuses they want rectified include a 20-day salary penalty imposed on the labour union leaders without prior notice, giving labour union members biased performance evaluations, as well as denial of annual leave and reimbursement of the employees’ medical expenses incurred at authorised hospitals, Teshome Wondafrash, chairman of the union, told Fortune.

The intimidation and harassment started when the employees established the labour union and the management claimed that union meetings were wasting work hours, the union members alleged. They also agreed to work overtime without pay to compensate for the alleged wasted time, they claimed.

The company respects the existence of the labour union, the management countered, adding that there have been no intimidation and harassment of any worker by the management.

“There was no problem with medical insurance and annual leave, nor was there a problem with score appraisals, which are given by their immediate supervisors,” B. Suresh, general manager of Ethiopian Steel Plc, told Fortune. “The company does not believe that there is a disagreement with the employees and is acting based on the collective agreement.”

The investigation team seems to agree that there is no problem.

“To date, we have not observed major problems between the union members and company management from our meetings with them,” Birtukan said.