Unions, other stakeholders hold business and human rights training in Tanzania

Representatives from 21 unions from 4 regions, and experts from the AfDBs independent recourse mechanism, the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD, FSC, FES and Accountability Council, met in the first week of November 2023 for a Business and Human Rights Workshop, in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

The participants actively worked with the experts to learn more about complaint mechanisms available for TU to file labour complaints and prepare complaints to be filed with the Financial institution's IRMs and OECD NCPs. The discussion centred on issues ranging from preventive risk mitigation interventions unions can take when a project has been awarded to a company with a bad track record, as a part of due diligence processes, grievance handling mechanisms in the construction sector/workplace to the difference between OECD NCPs, IFI IRMs and FSC complaint mechanisms, including strengths and weaknesses of the different mechanisms.

The Workshop was closed with a site visit arranged by TAMICO to the World Bank-funded Dar Es Salaam BRT Infrastructure Phase 3 Lot 1 project. During the visit, the project grievance mechanisms were discussed with the management, and the conditions of workers at the project were investigated. The findings were documented and discussed among the participants to show how they can be used to file a complaint. As a follow-up activity, BWI also contacted the World Bank about the concerning condition at the site. As a result, a World Bank Audit will be made and shared with BWI to demonstrate remedy to the reported issues found at the site at the time of the visit.