‘Our country has benefited from social dialogue’

Social protection is a human right. And where better to negotiate that than at a tripartite negotiation table? Based on this idea, with support from Mondiaal FNV, ITUC Africa launched a project to stimulate social dialogue on the corona pandemic in six African countries. And with every success, as was apparent from the story of the Somali trade union leader Omar Faruk Osman.

Omar Faruk Osman at FNV’s workshop on Afrikadag 2022

The project ‘Strengthening African Trade Unions’ Social Dialogue Capabilities’ took place in 2020 and ran in six African countries, Burundi, Burkina Faso, The Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Botswana and Somalia. The aim was via social dialogue to have a voice in the corona recovery programmes and to generate greater attention to health and safety in the workplace. 

In this half year, spearheaded by the Federation of Somali Trade Unions (FESTU), Somalia has achieved remarkable successes. Remarkable, because in Somalia an active civil war is still raging. The violent conflict has damaged the infrastructures in the country. Despite this, the trade union has built up a solid, close relationship with the employers’ organisation. Omar Faruk Osman, General Secretary of FESTU since 2015, was in the Netherlands at the invitation of the FNV to the Afrikadag, when he spoke about the value of social dialogue. He also paid a visit to Mondiaal FNV, which included making time for this interview.
 

FESTU participated successful in the ITUC project to give an impetus to social dialogue. Why was this important for you? 

“Workers all over the world, and African employees in particular, were severely impacted by the corona pandemic. We were lost. We had no experience in dealing with a pandemic. It would mean a huge loss of jobs and income, and we had a health crisis to deal with. Social dialogue with the government and the employers was therefore the obvious place to find an appropriate solution.  

“Since 2019 we have had a social dialogue structure, where amongst other things we discussed the formulation of the Labour Act and its implementation. This was followed by an agreement with the government and the employers that the Somali National Tripartite Consultative Council (SNTCC) would be established as the formal structure for social dialogue after the ILO had made recommendations and all parties had approved.”
 

Can you say more about your approach? 

“Somalia has absolutely benefited from this ITUC project, which Mondiaal FNV also contributed to. First we evaluated the situation: what were the issues and how would we tackle them? We got round the table with the employers, and there we explained the employees’ demands. We called for a human attitude with respect to the situation, in other words that the employers should show solidarity with the employees. While initially the employers wanted to freeze all the labour agreements, they later dropped this. They promised to not to stop wage payments and not carry out dismissals, unless there was no other option, but then this should always first be in consultation with the employees. The employers agreed to all these demands. 

“We discussed with the government the 5,000 public sector employees. It was agreed that they would be allowed to work from home with full pay, without reductions, and with retention of bonuses. Anyone without a computer or laptop at home would receive one from the government, as well as internet. All these agreements were a huge relief for us.”
 

Did this mean you were able to achieve everything you wanted? 

“A second important point for us was the employers’ duty of care. If anyone falls ill, the employer should come to his or her aid financially. If an employee dies, the employer should pay for the funeral. In Somalia, however, when an illness or a death occurs, your clan or your family is responsible and so the employers feel no sense of obligation. For us this was an important point. They have a duty of care. The Labour Act unfortunately makes no mention of this. But we managed to persuade 60 percent of the employers to accept their responsibilities. We remain in discussion with the other 40 percent, but they don’t as yet understand it.”
 

What was the role of FESTU in this social dialogue? 

“Our task was to encourage social dialogue. We want to reach collective agreements via a social dialogue and not via conflicts. So, while first being the driving force, we were later the partner in this dialogue. This meant we were able to reach almost every sector. Part of the agricultural sector did not participate, not seeing the use of social dialogue. This is still the case, and yes, that’s hard to understand. In due time they will, indeed, join in, otherwise they’ll be left out on a limb.”
 

What do the successes achieved mean for the employees?

“For the employees this meant a great deal. All our demands were agreed to, and so most of the employees still had job and income security. This was a huge relief. Via us they were given a voice at the discussion table. In this period, we had much closer contact with our members than ever before. They often came to us to explain their problems.”
 

Promotion via media 

A component of the social dialogue was developing guidelines for the workplace on how to deal with corona. The trade union federation circulated this information via de media in a highly professional manner. FESTU arranged for a freshening-up area, which was visited frequently by media workers, and was therefore able to engage them in conversation and find out about planned media events. In this way, FESTU was able to encourage journalists to include issues connected with corona in their coverage. 

Osman: “We promoted the guidelines surrounding corona on Facebook and other social media channels. Trade union leaders spoke on radio and tv about how we could restrict the pandemic. They also spoke about the rights of employees.”
 

What has FESTU gained from this? 

“We had two goals in this project: maintaining the numbers of members and organising more members. Since the project, we have grown by 13 percent. We now have 163,000 members, divided over twelve unions. FESTU has been in existence since March 2010, and we are still growing.”
 

And what is the situation now? Are you still conducting social dialogues? On what subjects? And what are the plans for the future?  

“We are still in dialogue about various different subjects, such as the Labour Act and ratification of ILO conventions. Social dialogue in our country is still in its infancy and is only just starting to develop. Our country consists of five federal states. Social dialogue takes place at national level, and we now want to focus on those states. We want to institutionalise the Somali National Tripartite Consultative Committee (SNTCC), comparable with the Dutch SER, and then roll it out to a local level.” About the future - Osman is optimistic. “I dream of a better time to come. Things are now changing for the better. There is an opening to more democracy.”