The introduction of revised labour legislation in Swaziland is expected to improve workers' rights and boost investor confidence in the tiny mountain kingdom.

The Senate passed the amended Industrial Relations Act (IRA) this week, despite the royal government's ongoing suspicion that workers' unions are bent on undermining sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy.

The previous IRA was a revision of 2000 legislation that had been amended by the royal council, causing a temporary suspension of trade privileges with the United States.

The 2000 Act had been formulated with the input of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU), the Federation of Swaziland Employers and the government.

Before King Mswati agreed to the 2000 legislation, he permitted the Swazi National Council Standing Committee - a body of royal advisors - to insert clauses criminalising some union activity and making strikes virtually impossible. Other amendments held union officials liable for company losses incurred during strikes, even when work stoppages were legally sanctioned by the Industrial Court.

After Mswati signed the amended law in 2000, the US labour federation called for economic sanctions against the kingdom.

Concerned that Swaziland faced the collapse of its export-driven manufacturing sector, largely fuelled by Asian-owned garment factories taking advantage of the country's US trade benefits, government withdrew the law for further revision.

Authorities stressed that the new revised labour law was aimed at honouring trade treaty obligations to provide statutory guarantees of workers' rights, and should not be seen as a victory for the trade unions.

In recent years there has been friction between the Swazi authorities and the unions over perceived opposition to the monarchy by workers' organisations, to the point where the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) threatened to bring charges against the royal government, of human rights and workers' rights violations, before the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The government has dismissed these allegations. "The Industrial Relations Act is up to international standards. We have no case to answer to before the ILO," Enterprise and Employment Minister Lutfo Dlamini told a press conference this week.

The United States had indicated to Swazi officials that the kingdom needed to comply with ILO labour practices if it hoped to remain a participant in the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA).

Swaziland's trade status was up for normal annual review in June, diplomatic sources told IRIN.

Prime Minister Themba Dlamini left this week for Washington to assure US trade officials that Swaziland was in full compliance with industrial relations requirements.

Dlamini would also lobby for the extension of a rule allowing the importation of non-Swazi raw materials to be used in the manufacture of Swazi products exported under AGOA.

The Industrial Court and a Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC) noted in its 2003 performance report that labour dispute cases last year rose only 2 percent from 2002, of which 64 percent of cases involved unfair dismissals, while 18 percent were brought over unpaid wages.

Lutfo Dlamini said other outmoded labour laws would also be reviewed, including a 1983 Workmen's Compensation Act, a 1964 Wages Act that complicated the government's ability to set a national minimum wage, and a 92-year-old Companies Act that made it easy for financially troubled companies to declare bankruptcy to avoid paying retrenchment packages, back pay and other workers' compensations.

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