2015 ITUC Global Rights Index - Côte d'Ivoire

2015 ITUC Global Rights Index Rating: 4

Ministries turn their backs on negotiations:

Months of negotiation with the Finance and Budget Ministry over living and working conditions, begun in 2013, amounted to nothing when the Ministry was divided in two and the Treasury Workers Union of Côte d'Ivoire OSATI had to start again. By September 2014 no progress had been made, the ministries acted as though the previous negotiations had never existed, and the Budget and Finance Ministers sent their heads of cabinet along rather than attending the negotiations themselves. In frustration the General Secretary of OSATI, Benjamin Gbogbeu Yaoue, called a 72 hour strike to begin on 9 September. The strike forced the Ministers back to the negotiating table. Despite seeming to agree on most of the negotiating points however, the Finance Minister kept delaying finalising an agreement, and by November 2014 the unions reported they had still not had their demands satisfied. The situation dragged on, with the unions accusing the government of bargaining in bad faith.

Workers employed by the Construction Ministry had experienced similar frustrations when the government failed to come up with any proposals in response to their pay demands. The General Secretary of the construction workers' union Syndicat libre des agents de la Construction (SYLAC) announced a strike on 21 August 2014 in an attempt to force progress, but advised members to simply stay at home, because nine of their members had been arrested in March that year for taking part in a demonstration in support of their demands.

Arrest:

Jean Pierre Tchotche is a union representative at the company Aggreko in Côte d'Ivoire. He was arrested by police in January 2015 when management alleged that he had been sending complaints about low wages to the company's headquarters in Europe. The company also dismissed him based on this allegation.

Occupation of union offices:

The head office of FESACI has been occupied by armed forces since June 2011. The government has failed to respond to multiple complaints made by the union.

Anti-union discrimination:

There is an enormous amount of cases of anti-union discrimination. For example, in November 2014, members of the Syndicat Libre des Agents du Port Autonome d'Abidjan conducted their congress under serious pressure. The management of the port threatened workers participating in the congress or having contact with the national centre with dismissal.

The ITUC Global Rights Index Ratings:

1 // Irregular violation of rights
Collective labour rights are generally guaranteed. Workers can freely associate and defend their rights collectively with the government and/or companies and can improve their working conditions through collective bargaining. Violations against workers are not absent but do not occur on a regular basis.

2 // Repeated violation of rights
Countries with a rating of 2 have slightly weaker collective labour rights than those with the rating 1. Certain rights have come under repeated attacks by governments and/or companies and have undermined the struggle for better working conditions.

3 // Regular violation of rights
Governments and/or companies are regularly interfering in collective labour rights or are failing to fully guarantee important aspects of these rights. There are deficiencies in laws and/or certain practices which make frequent violations possible.

4 // Systematic violation of rights
Workers in countries with the rating 4 have reported systematic violations. The government and/or companies are engaged in serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers putting fundamental rights under threat.

5 // No guarantee of rights
Countries with the rating of 5 are the worst countries in the world to work in. While the legislation may spell out certain rights workers have effectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labour practices.

5+ // No guarantee of rights due to the breakdown of the rule of law
Workers in countries with the rating 5+ have equally limited rights as countries with the rating 5. However, in countries with the rating 5+ this is linked to dysfunctional institutions as a result of internal conflict and/or military occupation. In such cases, the country is assigned the rating of 5+ by default.