Question Tag: Strike Action

Under the Labour Act 2003 Act 651, it is the duty of the employer to provide satisfactory safe and healthy conditions.

• Location of the company very close to a big gutter/undesilted gutter that emitted bad odour.
• The equipment was obsolete, exposing the workers to injuries.
• The workers were not provided with protective clothing.
• Their complaints were ignored.

Whether the workers were justified refers to Section 159 below:

• For a strike to be legal, the Law under Section 159 stipulates two circumstances under which legal strikes can occur.
• The first is where the parties fail to agree to refer the dispute to voluntary arbitration, and where the dispute remains unresolved at the end of the arbitration process, either party intending to take strike action or institute lockout shall give written notice of this to the other party and the commission, within seven days after failure to agree to refer the dispute to voluntary arbitration or the termination of the proceedings.
• This means that the parties would have gone through negotiation and mediation, yet they failed to resolve the dispute and one party to the dispute does not want the matter to be referred to voluntary arbitration, or the parties are at voluntary arbitration, but the conduct of one party is stalling the process.
• It is under such a circumstance that a party intending to strike or institute lockout must give a written notice to the other party and the National Labour Commission. However, what has become the norm by some workers, workers’ organizations, and associations is for them to issue press releases or press statements of their intention to embark on a strike. In other instances, the NLC is only copied notice of strike. Such acts contravene the provisions for embarking on a strike under the law.
• Again, such acts prevent the commission from pro-actively intervening to have the issue resolved. Very often also, the strike action started before the commission was informed. Furthermore, the practice where workers write to state that if no action is taken within a specific period “we would advise ourselves” is not appropriate because advising “oneself is not a notice “to the commission. Where a party is aggrieved and intends to take action, that party should state clearly the reasons for dissatisfaction and officially report to the commission for redress.
• A notice of strike, therefore, must be properly served as required by the law. It is important to note that today’s practice of industrial relations must be based on transparency, good faith, and adherence to the Labour Act 2003, (Act 651).
• The parties failed to agree—refer the dispute to voluntary arbitration.

(8 marks)

2 Marks for bullet 2 otherwise 1 ½ Marks for each point. AND a total of 8 Marks here.