The non-inclusion of labour and social rights in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will put workers at risk and exacerbate poverty in Africa, Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA) and African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) have said.
The two trade union bodies stated this in Abuja, yesterday, at the sub-regional workshop on the AfCFTA and trade union advocacy for labour rights and participation.
They argued that the removal of trade barriers will have serious consequences for labour, impacting jobs, worker protection, social security and union rights.
Acting President of the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA), Sophie Kourouma said it is important for trade unions to understand the pitfalls in order to prepare for implementation of the AfCFTA, participate in negotiations, and assist in enforcing labour protections.
She explained that one of the key pitfalls of trade liberalisation is the risk of outsourcing and job loss.
“When tariffs and other barriers are removed, companies have the incentive to move production to places with the lowest cost. Jobs are then transferred from countries with higher wages and better labour protections to countries with a lower cost of production. This can trigger what is called a ‘race to the bottom’, where countries try to out-compete one another by lowering regulations and labour protection,” she stressed.
Though the AfCFTA agreement was ratified in March 2018 during the 10th extraordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union, poverty had quadrupled in the last five years.
Her words: “Today, with the issues of increased poverty, inequalities and the transition to the new world of work among others, it becomes even more expedient for workers to be active participants in the implementation process of the AfCFTA at national, regional and continental levels.”
Kourouma maintained that trade union advocacy for the inclusion of labour rights within the structures of the AfCFTA should not be mere wishful thinking, but rather a calculated attempt to ensure that the interest of workers is captured in the entire process and that workers are a part of decision making on the issues that concern them directly.
She insisted that decent work, occupational health, and labour migration among other workplace issues are best administered where trade unions are adequately engaging the process.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of OTUWA, John Odah, said the workshop was forward-looking in terms of what trade unions ought to be doing.
He hinted that the trade movement will be taking stock of the progress so far made in the implementation of the trade union project of AfCFTA.
It also discusses and develops a sub-regional strategy action plan from outcomes of research on awareness, knowledge and challenges of AfCFTA among African workers for West African workers.
The General Secretary of ITUC-Africa, Joel Odigie, who provided more insights into the demands of the trade union movement in Africa, explained that calling for the inclusion of social and labour rights in the agreement is not tantamount to inserting a protectionist instrument.
He added: “We are not saying that instrument itself becomes a protectionist instrument. But we are saying governments should put safeguards that ensure due diligence in the whole process. Trade is an implication of how the value chain can function effectively. In other words, how do you, within the process, produce value? And in the process of the value chain, which we all know is a global process, it involves workers, it involves men and women.
“How do you ensure that their human and labour rights are protected? How do you ensure that their safety at work is guaranteed? How do you ensure that the goods and services at the end you will be trading in are not the product of forced labour, they are not the product of child labour?”
