By IPS Correspondents
BRUSSELS, Jan 7 2004 (IPS)

A leading trade union network has welcomed the European Union move to investigate violation of labour rights in Belarus.

The European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the European Union (EU), announced Wednesday that it will initiate an investigation into violation of core labour standards in the former Soviet state.

Under President Alexandr Lukashenko the Belarusian government has for years blocked legal registration of trade unions, limited trade union activities and repressed trade union leaders and activists. The government has intimidated and dismissed workers and violated the right of freedom of association, union leaders say.

Three trade union confederations, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) gave the Commission information on the violation of workers’ rights in Belarus.

The decision follows persistent international trade union pressure for the EC to take action.

This has been a “long-awaited move”, ICFTU spokesperson Barbara Kwanteng told IPS. “It is the responsibility of the international community to use all the instruments it has at its disposal to underline to the President and to the government of Belarus that fundamental principles and values, which include human and trade union rights, have to be respected.”

The Brussels-based ICFTU, which represents 158 million workers in 231 affiliated organisations in 150 countries hopes that the EU investigation will put pressure on authorities in Belarus to respect basic rights.

Belarus risks losing its preferential trading status and exports worth hundreds of millions of dollars if the allegations are found true.

The inquiry will run under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) of the EU, and could lead to temporary withdrawal of GSP status to Belarus. The GSP scheme provides duty-free access or tariff reduction.

Most developing countries, 178 in all, benefit from the GSP regime. In 2002 EU imports benefiting from GSP preferences amounted to 66 billion dollars.

The EU also grants additional preferences under the GSP for protection of labour rights. These are the “core labour standards” set out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) covering forced labour, freedom of association, discrimination in employment and child labour.

The EC also decided under this provision Wednesday to grant additional GSP benefits to Sri Lanka provisionally for two years.

Sri Lanka will be expected to implement a “road map” in this period to bring its law and practice in line with internationally recognised labour standards.

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said in a statement that the decisions demonstrate “the EU’s twin-track approach towards using tariff preferences to promote the respect of core labour standards: rewarding those beneficiary countries under the GSP that make particular efforts to implement core labour standards on the ground, and withdrawing GSP benefits in case of serious and persistent violations of labour rights.”

In the case of Sri Lanka, he said, “our investigations have shown that the country is making good progress towards full compliance with the core labour standards as defined by the ILO, even if this situation will have to be carefully monitored.”

Excerpt: