Trade unions in Benin operate in relative freedom, with approximately 75% of the formal sector being

unionized A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

. There are, however, concerns expressed by the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

(ILO) and the

International Trade Union Confederation The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC; ; ; ) is the world's largest trade union federation. History The federation was formed on 1 November 2006 out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) a ...

(ITUC) about the discrepancies between the government's Labour Code and the labour practices outlined by ILO Conventions 87 (

Freedom of Association Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline membe ...

) and 98 ( Right to Organize) - specifically the right of unions to form without government approval, the right of seafarers to organize or strike, and restrictions on strikes.

History

During the

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

era from 1972 to 1990, the trade union movement was organized in line with the professed

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

Leninist Leninism (, ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vangu ...

principles of the

People's Revolutionary Party of Benin People's, branded as ''People's ViennaLine'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH'', is an Austria, Austro-Switzerland, Swiss airline headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It operates schedul ...

(PRPB). However, with the shift to a multi-party democracy in the 1990s, the trade union movement split into various entities.

National bodies

There are three main

national trade union center Organizers within trade unions have sought to increase the bargaining power of workers in regards to collective bargaining by acting in collaboration with other trade unions. Multi-union organizing can take place on an informal basis, or on ...

s in Benin. The National Union of the Unions of the Workers of Benin (UNSTB) was the sole trade union organization during the rule of the PRPB, having absorbed all former trade unions in 1974. The

Autonomous Trade Unions Centre The Autonomous Trade Unions Centre is a trade union centre in Benin. It has a membership of 20,000 and is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation. It also works with the National Union of the Unions of the Workers of Benin. ...

(CSA) formed with the rise of the multi-party system, and amid fears that the UNSTB would be unable to separate itself from the previous political powers. The third trade union center is the General Confederation of the Workers of Benin.

Trade union concerns

Although Benin has ratified a number of the ILO "core conventions", there are notable deficiencies in the application of labour practices as espoused by the labour movement. In particular a 2004 report by ITCU (previously ICFTU) draws attention to the lack of women's equality in the workforce, the use of

child labour Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation w ...

, and the ongoing problem of forced labour.

References

{{Africa in topic, Trade unions in Human rights in Benin