Examining the violation of workers' right to organize at Sheraton Hotel Kampala

Abstract

Workers’ right to association in Sheraton Hotel continues to be violated by employers through intimidation to those who seek to join trade unions, demotions and summary or unfair dismissals for workers that engage in union activities among others. This study sought to examine the role of the Uganda Hotel tourism and allied workers’ Union (UHFTAWU) in protection of workers’ right to association, reasons for violation of workers’ rights to association. Strategies devised by workers and interventions to deal with the violation of the right. The research design was mixed involving both quantitative and qualitative approaches; the study was descriptive and adopted a cross section survey design. The study respondents were 80 hotel staff and 10 administrative staff selected using quota and purposive sampling respectively. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire and interview guide. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequencies, means and standard deviations, while qualitative data was thematically analyzed. Findings revealed on the first objective that UHFTAWU has to a larger extent carried out collective bargaining, on the second objective that ignorance of labour laws, non-enforcement of labour laws by the government by failure to penalize the perpetrators of violation of the right, liberalization of the economy, casualization of labour, and unemployment among others were responsible for the violation of right to association. On the third objective the study revealed that 73% of the employees devised a number of strategies including instituting of cases, industrial action and amicable measures such as mediation to curb violation of the right. The study also made a number proposals and recommendations such as sensitizing employers and employees through extensive social media campaigns and radio and television programs, amending the Employment Act to clarify the status of casual labourers, Ensure independence and increased funding to the Ministry of Gender and Social development to enable enforcement of labour laws by prosecuting violators of the right to association and developing a comprehensive national employment policy that captures implementation mechanisms of the strategies.