The management of the Dashen Bank and the Federation of Banking and Insurance Trade Unions of Ethiopia together with the founders of the disputed labour union of the bank have met on Monday, January 4, 2010, agreeing to keep the union going on.

Monday's meeting with the management, requested by the Federation, was scheduled to take place on Saturday, January 2, 2010, a day after the meeting organised by the management to establish another labour union "elected by the majority of the employees," as the bank had announced.


The closed meeting, which was attended by 1,200 employees, ended electing 11 members for the new union, which the Federation and the first union had claimed would be legally unacceptable. The meeting was called to discuss this issue, and ended with a quasai-agreement that the first union, established on November 25, 2009, could continue.

The bank's management decided to let the original union function because it realised the futility of trying to establish a new union, which, eventually, may not get legal recognition, Kabtimer Kebede, president of the Federation, told Fortune.

The first union could go on functioning, but the new one would, too, according to Mechal Bedada, promotion division head of the bank. The second union would be legitimate, he argued.


The Federation reinforced its push to end the second union, allegedly orchastrated by managerial intervention, after sending a letter to the Labour and Social Affairs Bureau of the city administration to reject any request for registration of the group elected on Friday's meeting, according to Kabtimer.

The Federation followed that with another letter to the management asking for its cooperation with the activities of the first union.

The founders of the first union were also expected to deliver a letter making a similar request to the management, but until Friday, January 8, 2009, that had not happened.

The bank, which was represented by the heads of the bank's legal department, human resource management and promotion division at the Monday meeting, emerged with more things on its mind.

The bank must uphold the outcome of the election on Friday and allow the two unions to coexist, Mechal insisted.

"The 11 people have been elected by a majority of the employees," Mechal said. "Why does the first group not submit to the decision of the majority?"

On Friday, leaders of the disputed union wrote a letter to the bank's management which states that they are going to keep on their activity as a labour union. When the union was first established, the founders had accused the management of transferring one of the founders from Addis Abeba to the bank's branch in Wolayita Sodo, in the Southern Regional State (SNNPR).

The Federation is expecting to get the bank's response to its Wednesday letter within 15 days.

Source: Addis Fortune