The 2000 Labour Code essentially denies trade union freedoms. Furthermore, the 1992 Trade Union Act only allows one trade union federation, the state-controlled Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation (SWTUF), and independent unions are banned. The government regulates most aspects of the trade unions’ activities, including elections, their organisational structure and alliances, and the unions’ funds are controlled by the Auditor General.
Collective bargaining
collective bargaining
The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.
See collective bargaining agreement
is thwarted by the fact that salaries are set by a tripartite committee comprising members of the government, employers, and the SWTUF. Although labour disputes are adjudicated by the labour courts, the Minister of Labour can refer them to compulsory arbitration
arbitration
A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.
See conciliation, mediation
. Legal strike
strike
The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
action is practically impossible as all strikes must be approved by the government.